Touhou Origins: Sakuya Izayoi
by Lord Odous
Summary: Being the only human serving the Scarlet Devil, what is the truth behind the enigmatic head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion? Allow us to explore deeply the tightly guarded past of Miranda Rose, the vampire hunter. This story is rated M for excessive violence and sexual themes.
1. Preface

**Hello! Lord_Odous here! It's been a long while since I last submitted any stories here. I am really hoping to write more and let more people read about my stories.**

 **The idea of composing a series of "Touhou Origins" had been going in my head for quite some time now, as you had guessed it, it will be a collection of the past of the characters in the Touhou universe. The characters featured in Touhou Origins are thrusted into an already established Gensokyo.**

 **Well, don't get too excited yet, as I doubt I would be able to devote a huge amount of time writing fanfics. I am currently a college student nearing graduation, and working will come soon after that, so depending on my future working schedule, I cannot offer any guarantees on how fast my fanfics can be completed.**

 **I suppose we should do things step by step then! I will start off with Sakuya, in which I had been portraying her backstory for some time. She is obviously a very enigmatic character, being a human serving under a vampire, as well as having time manipulation abilities. So, let's delve deeper into our past, shall we?**

 **I thank you for all the comments and reviews I receive, all these are valuable support to push me further.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

She was discovered under a blooming cherry tree. Inside the spherical object where she was found, she was being held in the bloodstained hands of a female adult, whom was most likely dead even before arriving here. She was merely an infant, wailing innocently as Mr. Jacques Rose, who just happen to be taking a midnight stroll, heard her crying and followed his way here.

With steady hands, Mr. Rose cradled the crying child and reassured her to ease her uneasiness in a totally foreign place. Poor thing, she was only hitting her first year and she had already lost her mother. Just like her deceased mother, this child had a rather peculiar color for her hair, it was in between black and white, is it grey? No, it was much more illustrious than that dull color, it appears to be radiating faintly the moonlight. Yes, it is a very beautiful shade of silver that composed of her hair color.

A surge of feelings rushed into Mr. Rose's head as he made the decision to raise the child. Mrs. Rose had always been fond with children yet they were unable to conceive one themselves, and it was no longer possible as both Mr. and Mrs. Rose had entered their fifties. After all, the little girl was such a lovely being, and it would be a pity if nobody would wanted to care for her after being orphaned in a cold night such as this.

For the next 5 years, it was all joy and bliss for the Rose family. Mr. Rose would make a small income by selling fruits he harvested from his small orchard, while Miranda, the girl whom had grown up ever since, was raised by Mrs. Rose and developed into a very obedient child. Their lives were not one filled with luxury and riches, with the few gold coins earned by Mr. Rose's harvest just enough to go by with a modest life. They were not asking for more, however, as they already had enough to feed everyone. That was all that matters.

This happiness was awfully short-lived, as tragedy struck soon after.

The little town of Lidoris soon found itself under the attack of a swarm of bloodthirsty vampires. Everyone was caught in surprise. Often times, vampires would just appear sporadically and only alone, at most two, and were quickly taken care by the skilled vampire hunters scattered around many towns to maintain peace.

But a swarm of vampires? This sort of event was totally unprecedented, and the measly small group of 3 vampire hunters stationed in Lidoris could hardly put up any resistance before being devoured. The mad horde of fifty vampires infiltrated house after house in search for humanoid delicacies, as if being extremely starved, their supreme urge and desire to satiate their hunger was elevated beyond levels. Along with their superhuman strength and agility, no human could stand up against them.

Cries for help echoed throughout the entire town but gradually died down as more and more fell victim to the vampiric horde.

"Take Miranda and run!" Mr. Rose was trembling wildly but as the man of the family, it was his responsibility to protect his only wife and daughter. He could hear clearly from the door, the disturbing sound outside his house intermingled with helpless cries and the devilish growls of the vampires. Most terrifying was the instant where the sound of teeth burying into flesh quickly followed by a deafening shriek from the unfortunate victim.

Mr. Rose could felt his knees gradually begin to give themselves, but straightened them up and kicked the nearest chair to pull them together, startling the two ladies. "There's no more time! Hurry!" Seizing this brief window of opportunity, Mr. Rose cried out again.

Extremely reluctant, but totally run out of ideas, Mrs. Rose pulled Miranda's right arm by force and dragged her down the basement. "Papa! Papa is still…!" Mrs. Rose made no attempt to answer Miranda's woes, tears rapidly flowing from her eyes as she could easily envision what would eventually be of her husband's fate. Miranda kept turning her head backwards in hopes that her adoptive father's shadow would catch up to them, but Mrs. Rose had her eyes focused only forward, but it was her that was most hurt during this entire ordeal.

The underground tunnel was merely a short one constructed on a whim back then by Mr. Rose, ending at the west end of the town. As Mrs. Rose pushed open the small wooden door leading outside, her hand was instantly grabbed and her entire body pulled out of the tunnel.

"Nooooooo!" Mrs. Rose cried out as loud as she could. Miranda tried to step out, but was quickly stopped by her mother, "don't come out! DON'T COME OUT!" The little girl immediately halted out of confusion, but it was soon as clear as day why her mother so desperately not allowing her to step out.

It was a vampire that grabbed her arm, and without a second's delay she was consumed, starting from the four limbs, by those bloodthirsty vermin.

Miranda's eyes were opened so wide as if they were about to gouge out of her orbits, she almost screamed but quickly shut her mouth with her two hands, an electrifying sensation felt all over her as she was overwhelmed with fear, she could no longer move an inch of her body.

As her mother's cries had finally died down, it had dawned to her that her mother was no longer alive, and that the never satisfied vampires would be coming for her next.

She was absolutely correct, as the menacing red eyes of a vampire peered through the tunnel, and it exhaled disgustingly as if it was saying "I found you" to the hapless little girl inside. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Miranda unable to hold down her voice any longer, yelled as hard as she could. Instinctively, she closed her ears with her hands this time and shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for the inevitable. Before long, she fainted due to the sensation of fear overcoming her.

"UWAAAAAAA-!" the vampire which reached his lifeless arm towards Miranda found itself stabbed by a dagger in his brainless head. Just as it was about to fell limberly onto the immovable Miranda inside the tunnel, what little strands of white and dry hair left on top of the vampire's head was pulled, and the vampire was yanked aside so the girl inside would not have to deal with a toppled body on top of her.

The mysterious man who was the one who threw the dagger and saved Miranda, proceeded and dealt with the remaining vampires. None of these were witnessed by the unconscious Miranda.

If Miranda could vaguely remember anything during the entire time she fainted, it was the feeling of being carried on a shoulder.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Splash! Miranda was forced to wake up after being landed a bucket of cold water. _What!? What!?_ Her entire body sprung up in surprise as she immediately sat up onto the wooden floor she was lying on.

"You awake?" it was a man speaking in a very cold tone. Just after he poured all the water down onto Miranda, he tossed the wooden bucket away without hesitation, as if he was sure she would wake up with just a single attempt.

Miranda hastily looked around her surroundings, and obviously it was somewhere she had no knowledge of. The entire room was rather small, most prominently the fireplace which first caught Miranda's attention, shining brightly and radiating a comforting warmth.

Elsewhere, the other furniture found in the room was a wooden rocking chair, two wooden tables, two wooden cupboards and a kitchen that looked to be sloppily assembled. Everything seemed to be made of wood.

Before Miranda brought herself to speak, she looked up onto the supposed savior of hers. He was a rather large man, compared to her already deceased adoptive father. His face was too high up that the faint light from the fireplace could not illuminate sufficiently for Miranda to recognize his facial features.

"Umm…" tons of questions were filling up in Miranda's head, she weren't sure which to ask first.

"Get outside." Immediately the man turned his heels and walked towards the wooden door, confident that the girl would just obediently follow.

"What?" Miranda asked. There was no reply. So the girl followed the man out the door.

Then it came to the realization to Miranda why all the furniture inside were made of wood. They were in the middle of an unknown forest. Perhaps this was the best procedure to allow a peaceful night's sleep without an onslaught by those wretched vampires, after all, they were attracted by the very scent of human beings.

This man must be insanely strong, Miranda thought, as he didn't seem to get hurt much after surviving that hell that was yesterday, still up and walking and kicking. The entire town was slaughtered yet this man single-handedly defeated the entire horde of vampires?

As the multitude of questions still spiraled in Miranda's head, she was unexpectedly handed a small dagger. "Take it." The man said, with a very flat voice and no eye contact with Miranda. "Huh?" the little girl was even more puzzled by this turn of events, her entire time spending with the Roses she did not recall ever being close to a sharp object before. _It's dangerous!_ Mrs. Rose's voice rung brightly in her ears, as she was taught very well by her adoptive parents on how to be an obedient daughter.

But they weren't here anymore. This sudden thought triggered a surge of emotions towards Miranda, as tears gradually began to crawl out of her tearducts, and flowed down her reddish cheeks.

"I said, take it." Not a single shred of compassion was offered by the towering man, as he pushed the dagger onto Miranda's nose. Miranda was still unwilling to hold the item, totally bemused by the awkward situation as well as the emotions overtaking her.

The man hissed, drew a scratch onto Miranda's beautiful cheek to snap her out to reality. Miranda released a yell of pain, and cried even more, as she hastily pressed against the wound with her left hand. Really snapped out of it, she looked up at the man, who was furiously glaring at her, patience being tested.

"Take it!" the man raised his voice this time, becoming an absolute command one should not simply disobey.

Without much of a choice, Miranda reached out her tiny and trembling hand towards the dagger's hilt, with the man letting it go as soon as Miranda grasped it. It was a small dagger, but had some weight that was a little too much for the tiny Miranda.

"Throw it there." The man with very few words pointed his index finger towards a tree, which has a white circle chalked out at the center of its trunk. After saying that, he took out a chalk and drew a line underneath Miranda's feet. "Hit it from here, and you will have dinner."

"Huh?" Needless to say the poor little girl was totally bewildered by what the man had proposed. He would expect a frail little girl like her, who never held a knife before, to hit the target from a considerable distance? Not to mention, the drawn circle wasn't very big, only around five centimeters of radius, and the distance was just shy of fifty meters.

"It's impossible!" Miranda cried out, begging for mercy from the man. But the man had already long gone and reentered the wooden shack, shutting the door tight. Miranda immediately tried to open the door, but unable to, she then proceeded to knock and lightly slam the door, "Mister! This… this is impossible!"

There was no answer. Miranda stood helplessly outside the door for a good few minutes, tears flowing down more and more. Yet her sobs was wholly ignored. Realizing that she had only one option remaining, she returned to the drawn line on the ground, tossed the dagger as hard as she could. But it would only end up a measly twenty meters away from her, still miles away from her designated target.

Miranda picked up the dagger and retried a few more attempts. She was not even close. Then a mischievous idea came to her: she could just walk ahead to the tree trunk and stab the dagger into the target, it would look like she actually hit the target and fool the guy…

"Don't even think of fooling me," the man's voice rang loud and clear through those wooden walls of the house. Miranda quickly had goosebumps and gulped, _how did he know!?_

So still that one option was the only feasible one. Miranda rubbed off her tears and sighed, and began the gruesome quest for dinner.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Night time had already begun its mark hours ago, yet Miranda was still struggling to hit her own designated mark. The degree of exhaustion that she never felt before with the Roses was quite frightening, she never would have thought she would not be indoors so late at night, not to mention for the very first time of her life, she was starved for several hours.

Not to mention it was dark and cold in the forest, it was nearing the end of fall, and the temperatures were dropping rapidly over the past week. Unfortunately for Miranda, she was not aptly dressed to brace the cold. The dark surroundings did not help much either, making it more and more difficult for her to hit the target as it became increasingly troublesome to find the misdirected dagger.

All these were becoming too much to bear for the little girl, despair had begun to hit her. _Papa…. Mama…._ Tears started to flow down again, but this time, Miranda did not allow them to run for too long, rubbing them quickly with the back of her hand, and stared at the target with enhanced determination.

 _Papa and mama were no longer here… the scary monsters got them! But… I am here…_ Miranda was taught before the basics of Godhood, in which the Roses made it a habit to pray for God before beginning their meals, and every Sunday they would go to a church to pray with the other villagers. _Thank God for sparing my life._ Miranda thought, clasping her hands together and performed a simple prayer, her eyes closed momentarily.

Once she was done, her eyes opened with a whole new light, focusing on the target sharply. She grabbed her dagger once again, in what may could have been hundreds or thousands of attempts, this might be the one to make its mark.

It really did.

Miranda flung the dagger after pulling her arm backwards and with all her strength, directed it all towards the dagger so it would generate enough force to cover the distance. Most of her failed attempts were due to the dagger not flying far enough, or even if in those few tries they managed to cover enough distance, the aim was way off.

But not this time.

The dagger stabbed right inside of the chalked circle, with the side of the circle just millimeters away. The tip of the dagger just managed to stuck deep enough for it to not fall off from its own weight. Seeing this marvelous sight, Miranda fell onto her knees, tears bursting again, but this time tears of joy, she shot her arms up high and let loose a joyful cry.

The wooden door from the wooden shack opened soon after, "Get inside", the mysterious instructor commanded. Miranda quickly sprung onto her feet and dashed into the welcoming door, her stomach doing all the thinking right now.

Inside the shack, a platter filled with bread was laid down on the table in the middle of the room. Miranda rushed onto it but hesitated as the bread was within reach. She still held a sensation of fear towards this cruel savior of hers.

"Just eat it," was the reply she got, and it was enough to convince her that it was okay to eat the food. Forgetting to wash her dirtied hands, she did a quick pre-meal prayer, and begun her feast.

As Miranda was busy munching her bread, the man was sitting on his rocking chair, his right arm rested on the armrest and his head tilted towards the raised fist, his left foot was placed on top his right thigh. He took out his daggers and begun polishing them. "You managed to hit it," his expression remained aloof, as if still dissatisfied. Miranda was too occupied with her food to give a reply, or maybe she didn't even hear it as the man was pretty much mumbling to himself.

"After eating, go to bed. Bath will have to wait until tomorrow morning. There's a river nearby but it's too dark and cold right now." The man began to chatter more, up to the surprise of Miranda. She faced to look at him, and nodded after some quick pondering. Obviously she would prefer a nice bath before hitting the bed, but being in uncharted territory now, she had no choice but to remain obedient, that's the best thing she could do.

Miranda continued chewing down her hard-earned dinner, and the man just sat at one place watching her. Miranda did return the gaze, and couldn't help herself and wonder.

"My name is Miranda, what is your name?" Mrs. Rose had taught Miranda to properly introduce herself before asking of other people's name, this was some basic manners, and Miranda had just done that. All she could hope was to be a good girl and prayed that nothing worse will come to her.

"Alberto." The man nonchalantly replied. "Vampire hunter." He added, giving the answer of the next potential question that may arise from Miranda's mouth.

The little girl was astonished, Lidoris was also guarded by its own team of vampire hunters, but they were instantly overwhelmed by the horde of evil and totally stood no chance. Yet this very man in front of her managed to brave against the odds, and was sitting there unharmed.

Multitudes of questions began to pop out of Miranda's head, but she couldn't find herself to pick any one of them to ask before Alberto stood up from his rocking chair.

"Early morning tomorrow, after meal and bath, I will train you," said Alberto as he pointed to a laid down mattress at a corner of the miniature house, indicating that was where Miranda will be sleeping tonight, his tone once again commanding as always. Every word came out of him was cold and emotionless, and this did not help to ease the feeling of anxiety from Miranda at all.

Unlike her previous foster parents, who were kind and loving, this very man was an exact opposite. As if he showed no compassion to her.

But he was the one who saved her. _He will train me? What does that mean?_

Miranda was utterly puzzled but helpless to do anything about it. All she could do now was to obey this man's words. After finishing her meal, she helped herself to her bed and it wasn't long before she went into deep sleep, her body and mind totally exhausted from the events transpired today.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The sun had just dawned itself, yet Miranda had already found herself bathing in the cold waters of a nearby river. Back with the Roses, she always enjoyed a nice, warm bath prepared by Mrs. Rose every day, but now, those days were no longer available.

The water was unbearably cold, just a dip using her foot was enough to send shivers down Miranda's spine, she would love to soak into the waters so her body be cleansed thoroughly, but alas she had to settle down with rinsing her body, using her little hands to cup the cold water and splash it onto her body. It was still terribly cold, but at least bearable.

Thankfully, Alberto was kind enough to pick up a spare set of clothing for her to change on. It was hardly for a girl, with the awfully dull brown color and some parts of the clothes were tattered, small holes littered everywhere. They consisted of a shirt and a pair of shorts, the size slightly too large for the miniature Miranda to fit in.

"They won't be big for long," was all he had to offer when Miranda questioned about the clothes. She could somehow understand what he meant, as Mrs. Rose always said "little girls grow up quickly". The clothes weren't new, so Miranda guessed that Alberto might have it in his possession for quite some time. His son's perhaps?

After done washing herself and munching down more bread as breakfast, Alberto brought Miranda back into the woods just outside his shack. They stopped in front of another tree, which has a very small circle chalked out on its trunk.

Alberto stepped rather far away, around seventy meters, and suddenly flung a dagger, which hit the center of the small 1 centimeter radius circle. The moment he did it, it was too fast for Miranda to witness. To her, all of the sudden there was a dagger stuck in the middle of the circle.

"Hit it, if you want dinner."

 _Huh?_ It was a scary sense of déjà vu to Miranda. What she had done yesterday night, she thought it was already the worst. She had hoped that this new day would be a better one, the day before being an absolute nightmare. But it seemed the nightmare had not ended.

Alberto did the same as yesterday, chalked out a line for Miranda to stand on, turned his heels and minded his own business, leaving the hapless girl with the dagger he previously left on the trunk. Miranda instinctively tried to follow him, but was immediately put to a hold as the man returned her a glare so terrifying that her knees started shaking. He was serious about this.

 _Which part of this is training?_ Miranda kept wondering to herself, all Alberto did was to show off his skills and then expect the little girl to follow suite. _Was he mistaken? He mistook me for someone else?_ Such a wild thought flashed into her mind for a moment, but she quickly came to her senses. _I don't think so, those eyes… they are scary…_ That gaze was sufficient to convince Miranda that she had no other choice but to repeat what she did all night yesterday, even tougher today.

Bracing herself, she began her "training". Having enjoyed a good night's sleep, as well as sufficient breakfast, not to mention that miraculous success she had last night, Miranda was feeling confident, _maybe I can do this_.

At least the forest was bright, she could easily spot her misdirected dagger and try again, her efficiency was better. But then, the sharp rise of difficulty really got into her, she could not find a way to cover the added distance, so trying to hit the tree trunk was completely out of the picture as well. She mustered all her strength, but it would just barely get past the fifty-meter mark.

Even the hottest period of the day had passed, Miranda's stomach began to growl, but there weren't any hopes of food coming her way. The only promise she had was dinner, in which she had to earn it.

 _I need to find a way to throw further_ … Miranda thought to herself, trying to recall that brief moment where Alberto "demonstrated" how to do it. She closed her eyes, trying hard to reminisce every single movement Alberto made. He put his left foot one step forward, and pulled his right shoulder backwards as the knife in his right hand rose above that aforementioned shoulder, over his head. In an instant, he flung it forward and downwards, he also twisted his waist a little for added power, his right foot stepping forward this time. His right hand ended just below the height of his shoulder.

 _Wait… why can I remember so much?_ The precise and detailed memory Miranda could remember surprised even herself, she could recall bits and bits of minor details, despite the entire moment being so brief and quick.

Trying to mimic what she just recalled, she did exactly what she pictured Alberto did. Whooosh! The dagger flew and hit the tree trunk, but not the circular target.

Miranda was stunned for a while, eyes wide opened and jaw dropped, and the shocking revelation caused Miranda to forget her footing as she landed face down onto the ground. But any mere pain was masked by the sheer excitement and joy of conquering the distance. _I did it! I didn't even use all my strength!_ Quickly getting up and neglecting to brush her soiled knees and face, she rushed to pull the dagger out from the trunk. It stuck in deeper than last night as well, meaning this method was far more effective than whatever she attempted all this while.

But not as deep than what Alberto tried before, where Miranda had to use both her legs to push against the trunk just to pull it out, toppling all over as she succeeded in pulling the dagger thrown by her mentor earlier out.

Nevertheless, this was still an achievement, and any sense of exhaustion and hunger, Miranda had forgotten all about it.

Her next few attempts were far more hopeful, many of them managed to cover the distance, and some hit the trunk, but still the target was too small and had yet to be hit. But Miranda was optimistic, she believed that, it was only a matter of time before she hit it.

She did not have to wait long. The dagger managed to hit just the chalked border of the circle, which left Miranda in tears and she yelled again, celebrating her victory.

Alberto did not appear instantly as he did last night, this place being slightly farther from the shack and all. But it did not take him too long either, perhaps he heard Miranda's cry of glory and came to check it out.

His expression was mute when he saw the dagger, but he did not appear to doubt the method Miranda used to plant the dagger into the target. He reached for his pocket and threw another one of those plain breads to Miranda. "Here, eat this. It's too early for dinner."

It was around three hours past noon, so this could be considered a snack to last until dinner. Miranda was delighted to be approved and fed something, so she wasn't complaining. "Thanks!" She said, wholeheartedly. Alberto turned and faced his back to Miranda, before mentioning "Come" and told Miranda to follow him. Miranda could spot a mild grin from his, judging from the left edge of his mouth widened a little. Miranda finally felt more at ease.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

They had come across what looked to be a training ground, many of the trees, large or small, were cut down with an axe. There were many contraptions built with these lumber specifically for their own purposes, be it weight training, target practice, stamina building, maneuver improvement etc. Most of them were built solely of wood, tied around with ropes so that they function as expected.

"Sit here." Alberto ordered Miranda to rest herself down onto a small tree stump, its main body being cut down long ago and served as one of the many contraptions found here. Not exactly understood the situation, Miranda obliged.

Then it came to her, Alberto was drenched in sweat when he came to pick her up, so this must be his training ground, she thought. Perhaps her "master" would want his student to watch the way he trains and pick up a thing or two?

Alberto proceeded to stand behind a faintly drawn line and took his stance, aiming at what appeared to be a series of moving targets, made by pieces of the cut down trunk, giving them a disc shape, as well with their center chalked down. The targets moved at variable speed, linked together by intricate rope binds that Miranda couldn't quite understand herself.

The vampire hunter pulled out six daggers, three in each hand, readied himself, and flung them one by one with great succession. He moved with absolute grace, marveling the observing Miranda with his antics. One after another, the daggers hit the moving targets, all directly into their center.

It did not end there, he pulled out another six, turned around and flung at a thickly-built wooden target disc. The knife went right through it, generating yet one of the many holes produced using similar methods. Before that, it was a display of accuracy, now it was a showcase of penetrating strength.

There's still more, Alberto then proceeded to direct his remaining five daggers somewhere else, four of them were shot at tree trunks of various distances, all four of them were more than seventy meters, some of them even almost out of sight, yet all of them hit the very center of their target. This was a showcase of distance covering.

With his last remaining dagger in his hand, he went to toss it upwards nonchalantly, which revealed a suspended rope housing many trunks of varying sizes. One slice from the dagger cut the rope off, sending those logs down onto the vampire hunter. He then pulled out another dagger from his right thigh, carving each of the falling trunks while avoiding them.

When the 30 or so trunks were all fallen to the ground, Miranda ran up to observe closely each of them. To her wildest awe, all of them were carved and cut off at some point, proving that he did indeed leave a mark on them. Not to mention, he was unscathed throughout the entire process. This was probably a demonstration of maneuvering around enemies and cutting them down.

Alberto looked as if he was done with his daggers, as he laid down all his straps and belts used to house his weapons down, and took his upper shirt off, moving on to weight training. His body was filled with multiple scars, old or new, the muscles were well built and toned, mostly designed for agility but not without sufficient strength.

Miranda observed for a while on her master doing bench press by using a large sized log. But as the motion repeated itself for a bit of time, she took the liberty to approach the equipment her master used to pull out daggers. They were straps and belts with many pouches to house the daggers, they could be resized at will so they could be tied around various body parts of different sizes. With the amount of pouches Miranda could count, it seemed her master could bring along at least thirty daggers at a time.

"Thirty-six." Suddenly Alberto mutter as he got up and moved on to another training ground, this time it was a nicely built sit-up bench made of wood, once again he demonstrated his ability of reading Miranda's mind and knew what was the question popping out of her head. Or maybe the little girl was just too easy to read.

Miranda wanted to ask more about where would these belts be strapped around, but was quickly cut short. "Wait," was all he said just as Miranda opened her mouth. She pouted her mouth with dissatisfaction, but dared not to try to object the well-built man. Not wanting to sit around doing nothing, she went to pull out the daggers flung by her master at various places, some of them awfully hard to remove.

She then noticed a trend among the knives she picked up, all of them were around the same length, probably around fifteen centimeters long. Each of them were nicely polished, even though their hilts did indicate of their age which wasn't brand new. Then she recalled Alberto was also polishing his daggers as she was munching down her dinner last night. _Maybe he's making them shiny every night._

Satisfied with his training, he got up and walked towards Miranda while wiping away his sweat with a towel. He grabbed the dagger straps from her rather forcefully, not thinking of asking politely, then proceeded to walk back to the house. Miranda followed.

"Tonight I have a job. Come with me," said Alberto, still not applying any eye contact onto Miranda as he spoke. Regarding a job, Miranda guessed it would be vampire hunting, that's what he introduced himself last night. Then this realization shook her of the disaster that occurred to her, to the Roses, and to Lidoris.

Those wretched vampires that took everything away from her.

Miranda bit her thumb in fear and frustration, Alberto did not appear to realize this, and kept walking.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

After a quick dinner, Alberto and his newly recruited apprentice traveled by a hired caravan. When asked of the destination, Alberto merely said, "Randell, another one of those small towns." When asked whether there was a vampire attack, all the reply that Miranda got was a "yes".

Miranda still felt very uneasy beside her supposedly new master, he was a man with too few words, and it did very little help to melt the ice between the master and student. When she was with the Roses, every meal was heartwarming, with nice and idle chatter littered around. But with this man, there's no such thing, often times it was a perpetual silence despite how hard Miranda tried to break it. All she got was a very brief reply no longer than a sentence, and Alberto would often stop her from asking too many questions.

Because of this, the trip to Randell yielded very few words. Alberto preferred to cross his arms, eyes closed, and pondered deep about something Miranda hoped she knew. Having nothing better to do, she peeked out the caravan's window, but there's nothing much to see either, with much of the trip being in the middle of some forest.

The trip lasted around an hour, they stopped just outside the town, which was, a scene Miranda remembered too well, on blazes.

 _Why would he always come after the town is attacked? Not before?_ In some way, Miranda blamed Alberto for being too late to save her, else her adoptive parents would be spared. Tears began to exit her tear ducts as memories of that wretched night started to overflow her mind, the scene where Mrs. Rose grabbed her arm and run away leaving Mr. Rose to his demise; as well as the moment her mother was also grabbed in the arm, but by a vicious vampire which soon devoured her.

A large hand patted onto her small head, it was Alberto, "Come, we got work to do." That was all he said, the words he used may be cold, but his hand was warm, it was gloved, but Miranda could still feel the radiating warmness, and calmed down.

Leaving the caravan and the man manning it behind, they marched into town. Most of the people in the town were already dead, various parts of their bodies showed signs of being chewed and gnawed, many of them were missing a limb or two, some even became headless, perhaps some vampires had a bigger mouth and appetite. Not even women nor children were spared, the dreaded beings had no way to differentiate any of them, perhaps they could only identify their own kin, and anything that was living and moving would be categorized as food.

"Stay close to me all the time." That was the only instruction given by Alberto regarding this "job". Having said that, Miranda grabbed hold of her master's pants as they both advanced deeper into the destroyed town of Randell.

Peace did not last long, as they soon encountered the first vampire on sight, it was just like the ones Miranda saw in Lidoris, grey and wrinkled skin all over, foul odor of rotten corpse emanating from them, their facial features distorted, few strains of white and dry hair on top of their brainless head, eyes popping out and teeth rotten, their four limbs crooked and nails clipped off. They were capable of running, something which spooked Miranda as she quickly closed her eyes and brought herself closer to her master.

The ominous growl that was released from the attacking vampire soon died down as Alberto planted a dagger deep into its forehead. "Don't look away, watch." What Miranda did just now somehow displeased the vampire hunter, who expected his newly recruited apprentice to observe the entire ordeal. Miranda gulped, _this was too different than practicing in the woods, these were vampires!_ Miranda tried to object, but realized that wasn't an option. Bracing herself, she followed her master closely as they resumed their hunt.

What was waiting for them next was no longer a solitary vampire, but a bunch, more like a dozen of them, as they gathered at the town's center and enjoying their feast of hapless humans. One of them was still alive, crying for help just moments before his predator sunk its teeth into his nape, forcing an excruciating cry from him.

Miranda looked at her master to see what he would do. Alberto pulled out six daggers like he did during training, and threw one onto the nearest vampire. This infuriated the others, seeing one of their comrades being taken down, as they launched a wild charge onto the opposing duo.

Alberto proceeded to released three more of his knives as projectiles, each of them landing accurately into the target's head or chest, stopping their tracks instantly. The remaining two daggers were held in each hand, serving as means of close combat as Alberto stood his ground and hacked down the onrushing vampires, black blood splattered all around, but Miranda did not receive any, being shielded by Alberto with his cloak.

It did not take too long before all of them were killed. "Did you witness the whole thing?" Miranda nodded. "Good. This is the reality now." Alberto finally spoke more, provided more answers for the questions Miranda had in her mind but had yet to bring them out into words.

"Vampires used to attack sporadically and alone, so each town would have two or three hunters stationed to get rid of them. All the while there's no problem. Until two months ago, something inside them changed, they started to gather, became more vicious, and attacked more often."

Miranda could not recall Mr. and Mrs. Rose telling her about the vampires until the very day she met them herself. Perhaps it wasn't really a big deal as they very rarely appears. In fact, Miranda could not remember any previous attacks in Lidoris until that fated day. She then began to tremble, realizing that those peaceful days were now under a constant threat. Nobody was safe anymore.

"Get stronger, Miranda." This was the first time Alberto called her name, and Miranda suddenly felt closer towards him, he became the only person Miranda could trust in such a dire state.

They resumed their purging of the town, the biggest bunch was taken down at the center, what remained was a handful of vampires scattered here and there, many of them taken down easily either by a pinpoint toss of a dagger, or just ruthlessly cut down from close range. After eradicating around thirty of them and roamed the town a little more, Alberto deemed their job was completed, and returned to the entrance where the caravan was waiting.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Things seemed to settle down as Miranda spent the rest of her days with her new mentor. She learned the trade of vampire hunting, and began to join her master in actually vanquishing the demons, helping out as much as she could.

Her training was ruthless as usual, Alberto hardly giving her another breathing room, giving her the most difficult tasks, and most of them involving her dealing with the contraptions her master was also using. She would be asked to hit all six of the moving targets in one sitting, regardless of the sharp rise of the difficulty curve. Or be asked to hit a target almost a hundred meters away. "You don't want to take any chances," when questioned why she had hit such a far target.

Naturally, she was also taught how to arm herself with as many daggers as possible. Alberto brought her a set to call her own, but due to the little girl's miniature size, she could only bring eight at a time: four around her waist, one at each limb. Alberto reasoned that any more would prove too taxing for the girl's body, as the weight would be detrimental to her agility.

For the next five years, Miranda coped well with her new life. She would have to be diligent with her training almost every day, with occasionally Alberto would toss some books for her to read, some on the knowledge of vampire hunting, while some were just basic knowledge of everyday life. "Can't have you knowing nothing but killing," was all he had to say.

From those books, she learned that vampires were weak against silver, which was what the knives her master was using made of. Vampires may appear to be brainless, but their brain was still intact, and their hearts still pumping to force movement over their twisted limbs. By destroying either one, their movements would be halted. Once the sunrays hit the surface, their flesh and bone would be fried and reduced to dust.

What caused their sudden change of behavior and attack in packs was not known by any of those books. Before this happened, they were kept in check very well. One would become a vampire when one was bitten by a vampire, mostly from the woods, where an unwary animal hunter would had fallen prey to one. Due to their weakness against sunlight, vampires were thought to be hiding in caves.

Not just her dagger throwing skills, Miranda was also tasked to improve her entire body maneuvering, she did a lot of roadwork just to improve her stamina daily, as well as some strength training with the smaller logs she could find herself. "Mine's too heavy for you, find some yourselves." So that's that. She would have to chop them down by using the axe found outside the wooden shack, heck, trying to wield the big axe seemed to be the start of her weight training.

Alberto would even further extend their training to sparring between themselves. Miranda would sometimes find herself being the target of her master's knives, being tasked to dodge them as he flung them to her mercilessly. It was insane, but extremely fruitful, so Miranda wasn't complaining.

When it came to the real job itself, Miranda held herself well, helping out by slaying any amount of vampires she could on her own. At first her mentor would stick close to her, but gradually they began to part from each other, even splitting up and eradicate the foes from different sides of the town.

There were times where they were summoned to guard a town where there were rumors of an imminent vampiric attack, by doing so the town was always saved. Their combination was well known throughout the land.

These attacks mostly occurred once a week, sometimes as often as two days consecutively, while sometimes they managed to catch a breather with being idle for a month.

But there was a trend going on, the requests for vampire hunting became less as days had passed. "There are more hunters now." Alberto remarked, providing a very possible explanation. When Miranda first met Alberto, he mentioned that it had only been two months since something "changed" inside those vampires, people were ill-prepared against this sudden onslaught. But after some time, definitely countermeasures had been taken, with more and more brave warriors encouraged to transform themselves into vampire hunters.

Age didn't seem to be a factor, Miranda had met several young ones, but mostly almost entering their teens, Miranda was still notably young for a vampire hunter.

Miranda was about to hit her eleventh birthday, when she felt her undies dampening, there was a sharp pain going inside her lower abdomen as well.

She had begun her menstruation.

Of the many books she read, she hardly had any knowledge about this. Among the books, there weren't one specifically about women's physiology.

"Oh no… what's happening?" She wondered, clueless as what to do. Her pain gradually caused her to roll up as she pressed her hands against her abdomen. Not knowing what to do, help was the only option, as she called out for her master.

"Master..."

Alberto entered the shack, just finished his training. He saw the sight of Miranda curling at one corner of the house. His eyes were different, from the usual aloof ones which rarely gave someone a gaze, they somehow turned wild and large, as if surprised. The master hunter licked his lips and gritted his teeth, reaching out to a cupboard, not to his distraught student.

Opening the cupboard, Alberto took out what looked to be a bottle of booze. Miranda looked upon her master in one go consumed the entire bottle, she could not remember her master drinking any alcoholic drinks.

After gulping his bottle of alcohol, unbeknownst to Miranda of its contents, he tossed it hard to the ground, breaking it into pieces. He wiped his mouth with his hand like a wild animal, his gaze predatory, looking upon Miranda as if a lion had eyes onto a trapped rabbit.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Finally…" It was as if the man approaching Miranda was not Alberto, but a lunatic, a madman. His drool dripping all over the floor, no longer walking upright, his head leaned forward as he closed in to Miranda, his arms outstretched forward.

"Master…?" Miranda was totally baffled to her mentor's sudden change of appearance, but was still unable to distract herself from the sharp pain emanating from her abdomen. Her undies kept being dyed red by the mysterious bleeding coming from her private part, until one drip of blood leaked through and flowed down her thigh.

This was when Alberto jumped in, like a lion pinning down its prey, and pressed her down with his superior weight. Miranda was totally caught in surprise by this inhuman maneuver, from confusion it had transcended to a sensation of utmost fear towards her master.

Forcefully, Alberto spread open the slender legs of Miranda, then pinned them down with his legs, revealing the full picture of her womanhood. He hissed like a starved snake, as he quickly licked the one drip of blood before it reached the ground. The tingling sensation of her mentor's warm and moist tongue running through her sensitive inner thigh was disgusting and unpleasant, but Miranda was still utterly confused and frightened, never taught upon anything related to this.

The taste of the very first drip of an adolescent girl's first menstrual blood was heavenly, the fetish that was so hard to achieve, finally bearing fruit after years and years of cultivation. All the effort built to raise this little girl, all the painstaking amount of time spent waiting… finally, to Alberto, he could reap the seeds that he sowed four years ago.

Naturally, one drip wasn't enough, as Alberto buried his face deep between Miranda's legs and sniffed as hard as he could to savor the divine aroma of such delicacy. His throat quickly drying up, his stomach immediately growling despite having finished his dinner just moments ago. He couldn't wait any longer, with his superior strength, boosted several times with his sudden surge of adrenaline and lust, he ripped apart the only piece of fabric that shielded Miranda's bleeding labia.

Upon the sight of such a wonderful scenery, Alberto released a maniacal chuckle, his gaze diabolical as he thoroughly enjoyed what appeared in front of his own eyes. Miranda tried to push the madman's head away with her frail hands, but was quickly denied when Alberto grabbed both of Miranda's tiny wrists with just one of his gigantic hand, and pressed it above her head.

Now not even resistance was an option, as Alberto started to devour the trickling blood that coursed down the delicate woman-flesh of Miranda's. A drop was already heavenly, now a sip tasted beyond imagination. His tongue quickly increased its pace as it twirled and explored all possible parts of his treasure, and Miranda could not do anything to prevent that.

Tears began to flow down of Miranda's cheeks, after staying dormant for so many years now. It took a while but Miranda finally realized that her master was no longer sane, and he was enjoying her, feasting upon her, as if she was a well-laid meal. Any faith and bonding that was built upon them all these years, was crushed to nothing during this instant.

 _What is happening? What happened to master? Why is he… doing this?_ Her enormous mountains of questions never exited her mouth, all that came out was cries of help that fell into deaf ears.

When Alberto realized he had sucked dry of that sweet bloody nectar out of Miranda, he was yet to feel satisfied. Still pinning down the poor girl, he ripped her clothes with sheer force so brutish, his claws left some of their marks onto the delicate and smooth skin of Miranda's, forcing some blood out of her chest and torso.

This seemed to delight the insane man as he took his utmost pleasure to savor the beautiful sight of the delicate, petite body of this still developing girl. Her breasts were showing signs of growth as they perk slightly, her waist so tight and beautiful, as well as her remarkable long and slender legs. This girl would definitely grow into a very charming woman.

But to Alberto, it was this moment, this stage of growth that aroused him the most: the very beginning of a girl's puberty.

Alberto straightened up to plant his face onto Miranda's to kiss her cherry and full lips. However, it was this very moment Miranda felt the weight bearing on her lower half became lighter as Alberto lifted up his entire body a little, as if he wanted to leap onto her, and she managed to pull herself away by rolling over to the side, causing her tormentor to crash head on to the ground.

It was a very quick instinctive reflex, Miranda somehow freed herself momentarily from her crazed master's grasp. She hastily got up to her feet and ran to the furthest corner of the house, trying to reach for the exit. But Alberto was extremely infuriated at this turn of events, as he stomped the ground so hard the wooden floor broke. Within a blink of an eye, he closed down the distance between him and his prey, and grabbed Miranda's long and silvery hair, slamming her aside towards the cupboard.

Miranda's back was the part that rammed against the cupboard filled with dining utensils, shards of glass mugs and ceramic plates carved her back and resulted in excruciating pain. Alberto, at this moment, as if it his beastly instincts instructed his body to fight off any incoming threats, pulled out a dagger from one of the pocketed straps he laid down just now after he entered the shack, and tossed it his hardest towards Miranda's face.

Perhaps her master had decided that it was no longer needed to keep her alive any longer, all females will only go through their very beginning of their puberty once in their lifetime. He would just be rid of this one, enjoy her corpse thoroughly, and look for another child apprentice.

It was then, multiple visions flashed in front of Miranda's eyes. They were images of her memory, the time she spent with the Roses, the time she spent with her cold yet still a father figure master, and the very instant the dagger stopped right in front of her eyes.

Without thinking, she ducked, grabbed the largest piece of shattered glass and threw it towards the attacking man. The result? The dagger missed as it went through just above her head, while the glass shard she flung went directly through Alberto's heart.

"Y…you…!" Alberto began to cough out blood, he walked two steps very feebly before collapsing to the ground, not moving soon after. Miranda could not believe her eyes, her knees knocking into each other, her mind in total disbelief of what had happened.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Ignoring the pain throughout her physical body, her deranged mental state prompted Miranda to dash out of the wooden shack, and into the woods.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Magic."

"What is it, Patchouli?"

"I sense some magic." Patchouli closed up her book and took off her glasses, staring off at the window located east from her direction. From there, the full moon radiated brightly and some of its rays pierced through the spaces of the window to illuminate the poorly lit Viole Library.

"You don't usually say that, I thought this land was devoid of magic?" Remilia was sitting on top of one of the many book shelves in the library, basking the moon light.

"That was usually the case, however, not tonight." Patchouli stood up and levitated herself to Remilia's level, trying to gaze as far as she could from the window she sensed the magic originated from. "It was no ordinary magic, it was time magic."

Remilia's eyes widened, "what did you just say?"

"Manipulation of time. It is amongst the highest level of magic out there." Patchouli waved her index finger, and one of her books just flew into her hand as she willed. It was a book relevant to the topic in hand, detailing about spells involving manipulation of time. She placed her glasses back to her eyes, and flipped open the book with a simple spell, not touching the spellbook at all while keeping it hovering during the process.

"Users capable of manipulating time could also bend the fabrics of space, as the two of them are interconnected in our universe." Patchouli added, quickly flipping through the pages.

"Now you've piqued my interest." Remilia replied. The feeling of excitement coursing into her veins once again, after being dormant for so long. "Hardly anything happens since we arrived 5 years ago."

"Not really, the ghouls had been very active since our arrival, there was much chaos occurring in this land, accountable to our presence." Patchouli replied starkly, still reading her grimoire.

"All I did was to cast a weak spell across this land, and that was exciting for first few months." Remilia smirked, feeling full of herself. "Though," she immediately rested her head on her right hand and pouted her lips, "things had calmed down too easily, and now nothing's interesting is happening these few years."

"It was only a matter of time that the humans knew how to deal with any threats that beckons them. They are, after all, logical beings." Patchouli closed up her book and waved for it to return to its original place. "However, it seems that, the wait for any excitement is over." Patchouli placed her right palm in front, and materialized a glowing screen, showing a silver-haired girl and her struggle against a man.

It became apparent to both the vampire and the magician that the source of time magic, was from this little girl. Not only once, but she stopped time twice. The first was to rid herself away from the clenches of her tormentor, the second was to stop a flying knife midair and dodge it, which was otherwise impossible without the help of time stopping. Both of these moments involved the manipulation of time, stopping it for a split second, as well as encompassing the entire wooden shack, the effect of the spell very noticeable to the vampire and the magician who was viewing through the magical screen.

"That's not all, she did stop time very briefly when she was six," Patchouli changed the imagery to the moment when Lidoris was attacked by ghouls, during the instant when a ghoul reached its deathly hand into the tunnel where this same silver-haired girl stopped time in a much smaller area, only halting the time ticking against the attacking ghoul for half a split second, but it appeared to be sufficient as it gave her incoming savior just enough time to catch up and save her.

"You see, it appears that her growth is related to the growth of her magical power. However, it seems that she could only activate it during the time of utmost distress. In order words, the spell is far from maturity." Patchouli explained with her eyes closed, feeling the need to look at the vampire while talking wasn't necessary, she was sure Remilia would not leave a single word out.

Indeed, Remilia extended her ears to absorb every single word the magician said, as well as paid full attention to the visuals she was shown. Her entire body twitching with excitement, "I want this power!" She boldly exclaimed, "I want it for myself."

Patchouli chuckled, "as expected from the great Scarlet devil herself." Patchouli had knew Remilia for more than a hundred years now, she was well aware of her friend's interest. Clearing her throat once, she added, "normally, spell users would only reach full maturity at the age of sixteen, I am afraid that you have to…"

"Then I will make her grow faster," Remilia quickly interrupted Patchouli's speech, not bothering to follow the rules. "Just tell me the catalyst to improve her magic."

Patchouli lowered her chin, eyes closed and pondered for a bit. "Fear, and despair. As deduced from the three instants she activated her spell. These two factors were commonplace in all three occurrences."

"Fear… and despair… Fufufu…" Remilia grinned largely, after all, injecting those two elements onto one being was most exciting to her, as well as being her specialty. Transforming into a swarm of bats, she returned to her chamber, and begun to concoct the plans to meet her ends.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Who knew how long Miranda had been traversing through the dark and cold woods. The pain coursing throughout her, both physically and mentally, were on the verge of breaking her apart.

Her mind blank as she kept trudging through the forest, without any destination in mind. Everything that had transpired so far made no sense to her, she wouldn't believe what Alberto had done. For lord's sake, despite not being the most loving teacher out there, at least he provided her with food and shelter; provided her with vampire hunting skills to protect herself. He would pat her head if Miranda performed well, it was something most anticipating for her.

At the very least, Miranda really did consider him a father. Having lost one cruelly, she never would had thought she would lose this one in such an inexplicable manner.

 _What happened? Why?_ Miranda kept asking herself over and over again as she kept running. As if possessed by a demon, the Alberto who normally wouldn't speak more than three sentences at a time, who normally wouldn't be bothered to have too much physical contact with her, suddenly went all out and performed those atrocious deeds.

Thorns from the bushes and trees kept adding more physical wounds to Miranda's already broken body, prickling her all over, but their presence never kept in mind by her, as she continued to make her way through the woods, and solve the unfathomable riddle in her head.

She kept running and running. Before she knew it, she was lying on the ground, unconscious.

Miranda gradually opened her eyes, the bright rays from the light on the ceiling blinded her for an instant. Somehow, this scene felt so familiar to her. _Alberto?_

"She's awake!" a female voice cried out as hurried footsteps came soon after. She was hugged around the neck by a girl around her age. "Thank goodness!"

The sensation of human touch quickly turned unpleasant as horrid memories of the night before came back to haunt her. Instinctively, she let out a scream, "Nooo! Don't touch me!" and pushed the girl away, retreated to a corner of the bed and grabbed tightly the blanket that enveloped her during her recovery, her body trembling violently.

The girl was puzzled by this sudden outburst, she tried to reach her hand to comfort, but in response she received another scream and Miranda hastily turned her back to face the girl. She buried her head between her knees, weeping deeply.

"So, she finally woke up?" This time, it was a man, the dreaded sound of a man. Upon hearing it, she grabbed the nearest object beside her – a rubber-made ball, and threw it with pinpoint accuracy towards the forehead of that man. He was holding a tray with had a few plates and bowls on it, must be a meal prepared for her. Fortunately, the impact from the ball wasn't that severe and he held on to the tray firmly, not allowing it to drop.

Miranda's eyes were fierce, her breath fast and shallow, her eyes shaky. Sensing that his presence somehow triggered something unpleasant inside her, the man put down the food and left the room, leaving his daughter and the silver-haired girl.

"It's alright now, nobody is going to hurt you here." The girl very slowly, attempted to approach Miranda again to calm her down. Miranda grabbed tightly her blanket again, still bearing feelings of hostility. "My name is Iris, I found you lying unconscious just at the edge of the woods, and brought you here." Iris thought it might be better to start explaining things to her, perhaps it would clear off some questions in her head, and loosen up to her.

"M… Miranda…" it was a success, as Miranda at least would introduce herself. Prior to that incident, Miranda had gradually grew more outgoing and often introduced herself to everyone she met on the job, although still small, there were quite a number of vampire hunters who knew her.

Iris smiled as she brought the tray closer to Miranda, "eat it while it's warm!"

Staring at the food, her stomach begun to take over. Iris took her seat a comfortable distance away, so Miranda took the opportunity to help herself and feasted upon the meal she was offered.

"It's just past lunch time, no wonder you're hungry." Iris chuckled, the sight of Miranda eating so voraciously was hilarious. "You were hurt pretty bad, I helped you with the bandages."

After hearing that, Miranda took a moment to examine her dressing, they were neatly put together, with her able to feel the care enveloped in these bandages. Then Miranda thought of the condition of her private part, and grabbed the blanket, pressing against it.

"You are on your period," said Iris.

"Huh?"

"It happens every month, all women do."

Catching the hint that Miranda was absolutely clueless about this matter, Iris patiently explained the concept to her. Feeling her nervy layers of hostility unfolding away from the gentle and kind Iris, Miranda began to tell her everything, about what happened to the Roses at Lidoris, how she met Alberto, and what filthy thing Alberto he had done to her.

"My lord…" Iris closed her mouth with her hands after hearing such a bitter experience, Miranda had it worse, tears cascading from her eyes as they wet the food and blanket she held in her hands. Iris went on and gave her the best hug she could. "It's okay now, I am here with you."

Miranda, appreciating the kindness, hugged tightly back and bawled to her heart's content, releasing all the sorrow inside her.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

For the next six months, Miranda spent her days with Iris and her father, Mr. Barnes. It came to surprise to hear that they were residing at the rebuilt town of Randell, which Miranda recalled was destroyed by a vampiric attack five years ago. "The location's nice, it was just outside the forest, and there's a large stream flowing by, we could easily plant crops as well as gather wood here." That was what Iris believed when Miranda questioned her. "My father and I moved in just after the town was rebuilt." She added.

At Miranda's insistence, she had learned the arts of housekeeping from Iris. She did not want to be a freeloader, offering any help she could to the Barnes. Iris was a very able girl herself, just only one year older than Miranda, her housekeeping skills were top notch, and Miranda was always in awe looking at Iris doing the cleaning.

"You learned fast," Iris remarked, referring to Miranda with her newly acquired cleaning skills. Miranda was flattered by the compliment, she was actually a pretty fast learner herself, most evident during her time with Alberto, where it did not take her too long to learn the majority of vampire hunting skills her former mentor taught her.

Speaking of vampire hunting, Miranda gradually opened herself up and offered her services to the local vampire hunting guild. Many recognized her when she brought up her knives, and those who didn't would surely recognize the name of her master. Every time Miranda mentioned his name, she gritted her teeth. _That foul man…_

The attacks often came in biweekly, with the hunters stationed just after the river, facing the woods, protecting the town from the filthy beings by exterminating them outside. Miranda equipped herself with the usual arsenal – straps and belts to slot in as many daggers as she could fit, at this point she could hold twenty of them. They were given for free by the local townsfolk after recognizing her skills, as during every onslaught, she would often be the one contributing the most, killing off many vampires from afar with her deadly accuracy, as well as her superb agility in rushing into the masses and hacked them into pieces. She had developed what it seemed to be a cult following among the younger children in town, as well as great respect from the older residents.

One night, Iris summoned her, pulling her hand mischievously as she dragged Miranda and brought her to the outskirts of the forest.

"Come with me!"

"Wait!"

Joy and laughter filled up the short trip from Randell to the unknown destination Iris was bringing her to. The new life was considered stable, although they had to be vigilant about the vampiric attacks, nevertheless Miranda had settled down and was able to enjoy life.

"There they are!" Iris exclaimed as she pointed at a field of blue flowers. Upon arriving, they knelt down to appreciate the beautiful flowers. They were quite numerous, covering a significant area of the field. Its flower was dazzlingly blue, radiating the moonlight rays from the equally magnificent full moon tonight.

"These flowers are called 'irises', they were my mother's favorite," mentioned Iris as she stuck her nose near to the flowers and lightly inhale to enjoy the light yet pleasant aroma of them.

"Were?" Miranda noticed the usage of a part term.

"She's no longer here since seven years ago," added Iris, her eyes showed a hint of sadness, "she was the most beautiful person in this world."

"I am sorry…"

"My father said I was named after this flower, and every now and then, we would bring them to visit my mother."

Miranda went to caress the petals of the blue-shaded flower. Not one to enjoy flowers often, but perhaps her ladyhood had gradually grown into her as she was able to marvel at the flower's beauty.

Then, it happened.

The town of Randell was encased by a gigantic red wave, shaped like a cross. Cries and outbursts could be heard clearly from the town, "what!?" Miranda noticed the danger coming from the town, and rushed back.

"Miranda, wait!" Iris immediately followed.

It was a horrid scene to witness at the town of Randell. Multitudes of corpses piled together as they looked to be shriveled, as if being sucked dry. The buildings were all in blazes once again, a scene Miranda was very familiar with.

Iris was left in shock and despair, "nooooo!" her legs falling over as she closed her ears and bawled. Her father, her home, her friends, all seemingly had become a lost cause.

Miranda was much calmer, scanning the area as fast as she could, looking for the perpetrator.

"I've been waiting for you." A voice emanating clearly from the rooftop. She was rather far away, but her voice loud and clear. Her calling hastily directed Miranda's gaze onto the mysterious being, which suddenly vanished, appeared again to another rooftop on a nearer building, vanished again, and materialized again, this time just on top the building where Miranda and Iris were looking from below.

"Did… you do this?" Miranda asked, teeth clenching and fist shaking, anger boiling up inside her.

"That is correct. I burned down all the houses, killed all the townsfolk, and sucked them dry." The female-like creature licked her thumb of blood as she spoke. She was no taller than Iris or Miranda, with the physical appearance of a ten-year old. Her dress was white but soiled with the bloody color of red all over. Her most interesting feature, however, was the mysterious pair of black wings protruding from her back. "So, what are you going to do now?" Her voice intimidating.

"You… you!" Miranda pulled a dagger out, having brought her arsenal with her tonight, and flung it with utmost anger at the taunting of the enigmatic foe. It was deadly accurate, but hit only a dark mist, as the enemy vanished again in front of her own eyes.

"Impressive accuracy," the voice coming from behind this time, as the unknown enemy appeared right at her back and caressed her long silvery hair, "beautiful hair…"

This further infuriated Miranda as she pulled two more daggers out and turned around to attack, wailing her knives around hoping to hit the target. The opponent dodged effortlessly at every single attempt. Having enough, she returned one single attack, which clawed into Miranda's right shoulder, halting her barrages and causing her to close up the wound with her left hand.

The wound was deep and stinging, blood gushing from it. The sight of blood caused the mysterious foe to lick the edge of her lips, "do not worry," she suddenly spoke, "I do not seek for your blood, but…" immediately she fired what seemed to be red needle projectiles at the defenseless Iris, filling her entire frontal body with them, causing blood to burst out of her mouth.

"Noooo!" Miranda exclaimed, but her shoulder prevented her from providing any relevant resistance, as she looked onward to Iris's limber body being held up by some mysterious power used by the foe. Waving her fingers, Iris was quickly drained of blood from her dying body and the blood was transferred to the conjuror through unknown means.

With not a single drop of blood spared, the wilted carcass of Iris was thrown beside Miranda, who immediately examined her precious friend. No signs of life were present.

"You… you!" Miranda bellowed with tears as she held up her unmoving friend, eyes glaring at the amused enemy. She wanted to avenge for Iris, but the underlying sensation of fear against this terrifying foe prevented her, and she felt hopeless.

"My name is Remilia Scarlet, the Scarlet Devil." Remilia curtsied as she introduced herself mockingly, "I am a vampire." She added.

The revelation that this very enemy was a vampire further enraged Miranda, as it was well known that her specialty was in fact, hunting these monsters down. How was it that, this vampire was so remarkably different than the previous ones?

"Remember my words, Miranda Rose. I will take away everything you hold dear." After Remilia had said that, she turned into a swarm of bats and flew off into the sky, laughing maniacally as she left the grief-stricken Miranda with no other survivors in the burning town of Randell.

 _How… how did she know my name?_ The rain began to pour down, extinguishing the burning houses of Randell, yet the anger inside Miranda did not die down, as she slammed the ground with her fist, vowing to hunt down the so-called vampire for good.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Loneliness had beckoned Miranda once more as she wandered aimlessly in search for a new home. This marked the second time her home was reduced to ashes. But this time, it was much more complex and puzzling, as the so-called vampire who reduced Randell into rubble did not fit the description of a vampire she knew at all.

 _Who is she? What is she?_ The only answer Miranda could construct was that she was no ordinary being, something she had never met before, something extremely powerful, that at her current state, she stood no chance.

This only meant one solution, she had to become stronger, she must.

The closest town she knew from there was Rudoore, as that was where she decided her next destination would be. Being in the vampire hunting business all these years helped her knowing her geography, she never expected that they would come in handy in such a manner, as she used to travel on carts back then, moving from one town to another to thwart any vampiric attack.

The rain was pouring without showing signs of letting up, the night was dark after all the blaze from Randell had been extinguished from the rain. It was a cold and chilly night, draped in a thick overcoat, Miranda pressed on.

She had nowhere to rest, the path to Rudoore was mostly a straight road down from Randell, the opposite direction from the woods, plains encompassing most of the trip. The weather too extreme to lay down and take a breather.

Just as the sun had begun showing its rays, Rudoore was at sight.

"Who is it?" The guard manning the main gate of the town asked as Miranda presented herself. "Miranda Rose, vampire hunter," she replied with determined eyes.

"You're too young to be one," the guard returned with a snarky remark.

Miranda then pulled a knife out and flung it right onto the cloth hat of the guard, "I am indeed one." The dagger brought the hat all the way up the tip of one of the gate's pillars, and had it positioned there firmly. This caused the lowly guard to cower in fear of Miranda's impressive ability, "y… you may enter…" he opened his hand to the gate, welcoming Miranda. Wise choice.

After what had transpired, Miranda tightened with her guard, eyeing every single walking person with utmost caution. She had to ensure to minimize the mistakes currently, and taking no chances. The Scarlet Devil who called herself "Remilia" could be hiding somewhere, despite the fact that daytime had arrived, and vampires were supposed to no show themselves until night. However, despite claiming to be one, Miranda wasn't buying that Remilia was the same "vampire" as the ones she normally hunt, as such, any characteristics a vampire would have wouldn't be applied to her case.

Ignoring the various gazes from the public, Miranda made her way to the inn of the town to get some much needed rest. She had brought with her some money, mostly given to her by the lads of late Randell for helping out with the vampire sweep.

Securing herself a room, she laid down her equipment and sat on the bed, lightly close her eyes, but her ears were on constant standby, catching any suspicious noise, her nerves were still on their edges despite being in an inn, the rest was hardly deep and recuperative.

Such tension eventually died down after exhaustion had gotten the better of her, as her head immediately sunk onto the comfy pillow and she dozed off to a good sleep.

For the next one year, nothing major happened. Remilia did not return, but the usual attacks from the lesser vampires were still present, and Miranda provided great support to the hunter's guild of Rudoore.

She had gradually warmed up to the townsfolk, becoming very close with the vampire hunter's guild, which called themselves "Black Panthers", dressing themselves up in all-black clothing, their battle style was a stealthy one, as well as being very proficient with vampire hunting, hence Miranda could blend in rather easily. She was already part of the team, just after the very first attack from the vampires, where she caught their attention for her exceptional skills.

"Hey Miranda! Let's go for a drink!" One of her new teammates invited her, it was a man in his early twenties, Alan's the name, who had an exceptional relationship with booze, something Miranda detested earlier due to her sad past with it, but eventually came to terms with it after witnessing the Black Panthers weren't like her old master, booze was drank to celebrate and nothing major happens after that.

"Stop that, Alan, she's underaged, and so am I! Now quit asking us to drink all the time!" Lily retorted, being one of the two female members in the group of six, because of this, she's the closest with Miranda, as the two often shared idle talk and gossips, sometimes talking behind the other members of the group.

She's also Miranda's housemate, as Lily had taken her in to live with her family. Once again, not wanting to be a freeloader, Miranda volunteered to help out with the house chores, and performed them exceptionally.

Led by Barto, Alan, Lily, Marco, Robert and Miranda made up the rest of the team. The group had been one of the more organized guilds of vampire hunters. Their attacks on the vampires were far more efficient than any other groups she met, their teamwork was fluid and so was their relationship. Barto was normally the one giving orders, as well as staying behind to monitor the situation. The remaining five would hop around with great agility and take out the vampires, like panthers mowing down their enemies with great skill and dexterity.

After completing the job, the local tavern would treat them all the food and drinks they could gulp down, all under the house. Rudoore had been quite peaceful thanks to the valiant efforts of the Black Panthers, their townsfolk living happily in peace. At many occasions, Miranda felt like she had found a new home.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"Marco, Robert, charge head on and attract 'em. Alan, Lily and Miranda, shove 'em into their faces from the flanks."

"Yes, boss."

The Black Panthers split up in their usual formation, Marco and Robert were known for their physical strength and their fearless gut to face up with the vampires. The masses did not have a complex thinking and often went for the frontrunners. The common routine would involve Marco slamming his giant axe down onto the unfortunate ones who approached them the earliest, as well as producing wild swings to cleave the other vampires out of the way. Robert would then cover for him with his shotgun, capable of dealing heavy damage with the perfect range, blasting away any wretched vermin which Marco had missed.

This allowed the more agile members to move around with greater space. Alan was quite a traditional fighter, prompting the usage of medieval swords even when guns were already available for quite some time. He's very skilled at it, coupled with his quick feet, he could be described as dancing around his foes as he hacked them into pieces.

On the other hand, Lily was purely a ranged fighter, armed with twin pistols loaded with silver bullets, she was a prolific shooter with a terrifying aim. While possessing a good pace, she mostly utilized it to keep herself a good measure of distance from harm.

In comparison to those two, Miranda was perceived as a mix in between, as she was adept in both close and ranged combat. Not neglecting her training, her strength, speed and accuracy improved throughout the year. Her dagger could now pierce through three vampires and take them out at the same time. She was also feeling more confident about charging forward into the enemy lines and wiped them off with some impressive knifework.

All in all, their individual skills were decent enough to be on their own, and with some strategy added in, the ratio between gains and losses could be achieved at the best possible rate.

That is, if there's nothing unusual going on.

However, things did not go as planned that night.

"Ufufufu… still doing great, I see."

 _That voice!?_

"Who's there?" Barto cried out after listening to a mysterious voice, which stood out so much due to the fact that their usual foes did not have the capability to speak, and he had already recognized all the voices of his teammates by heart.

Manifesting herself in the middle of the brainless, lesser beings, her presence alone froze all the ghouls in place. Sensing this irregularity, the Black Panthers rallied together around their leader, bracing themselves against this new enemy.

She was someone Miranda knew too well, her healed right shoulder stinging again slightly to remind her, cold sweat began to drip from her forehead. Her teammates noticed Miranda losing her composure, and immediately tightened their guard. The fact that their coolest and most powerful member would also cower would only spell trouble – this was no ordinary foe.

"Re… Remilia…" Miranda's voice trembled, the sickening images of Randell returned to her once again. She thought she had put it all behind her, this new life with her new friends too beautiful that it's most soothing. _Has she come to take everything away again!?_

"Ufufufu… thank you for remembering me, my dear Miranda Rose, is my presence so terrifying?" Remilia easily read through Miranda from her facial and body movements, "I said before, didn't I? I will take away everything you hold dear."

Miranda was stunned for a moment, the feeling that the events of Randell would just reoccur began to build inside her. "I don't understand! Why are you doing this!?"

"Your fate had already been sealed from the very moment we met." With a clench of fist, all the ghouls below her were crushed into a pulp instantly, their black blood twisting in a typhoon as they gradually morphed into a swarm of black bats. Using her new minions, Remilia directed them into the unguarded town of Rudoore.

"No!" Alan quickly grasped the severity of the situation. With the Black Panthers all out here to battle the ghouls, there weren't any who specialized in vampire hunting left in town to protect the people. An attack inside town had never happened before, as the ghouls would only attack from one place, and they would easily dispatch them outside town.

"The town!" Lily rushed back towards the direction of Rudoore, however Remilia did not allow it, materializing right in front of her, blocking her way.

"Where do you think you are going?" The Scarlet Devil replied with an intimidating smirk. Lily was forced to fall back to her comrades as they watched helplessly at the town being attacked.

"Who are you!?" Barto asked as he gritted his teeth, pulling out his silver knuckles and slammed them together to pump himself and his teammates up. The rest of the Black Panthers also readied their weapons as they were left with only one choice – take down the lady vampire standing in their way.

"A vampire. A genuine one." Remilia replied mockingly, "what you had been fighting all these years weren't actually true vampires, but lowly ghouls, merely weaklings and puppets for my personal entertainment. Ufufufu…" she proceeded to amuse herself by enjoying the looks of disbelief from the vampire hunters.

"Head's up, guys. She's the real deal." Miranda affirmed Remilia's words, a drip of cold sweat wiped off from her chin. She had to believe her for now, there wasn't any way around it, nothing could be said to deny the Scarlet Devil's claims. Up until today, everything they knew from those "vampires" were merely compilations of information from the past experiences, there wasn't anything to ascertain what they believed was the truth.

All the while they were battling against lies, achieving a false sense of peace and glory. This was it, the moment of truth slapped right into their faces.

Miranda swallowed hard, those dreaded scenes when she first met Remilia kept lingering in her mind. There was one major difference between them and now, however, the Black Panthers were now alongside her.

Maybe she could win this time, perhaps the great sense of invulnerability that oozes out from Remilia was merely her imagination. She pulled several daggers out and gripped them tight, "I do not fear you," she said, trying to exert some confidence to pull herself and the team together, as well as unnerve the opposing foe.

"Oh?" Remilia merely chuckled, her hand covering her mouth, "so, with friends who can fight alongside you, you believe you can beat me."

"Yes."

"Take the lead, Miranda," signaled Barto, the rest of the vampire hunters were also ready for battle.

"Understood."

Taking the initiative, Miranda flung a dagger towards Remilia, triggering the start of the confrontation. "You've improved." Remilia dodged it easily by dashing to the side. After the first attack, the rest of the Black Panthers charged in for a collective attack.

None of the attempts connected however, despite how skilled they were, the Black Panthers were soon served a humble pie as they quickly realized the difference in strength between them and this new foe.

She tried to hack her down, gun her down with her daggers, yet everything seemed… useless. The outcome looked totally unchanged as compared to Randell's. Miranda couldn't believe she was unable to close in the gap between the difference of their abilities, her attacks gradually becoming more and more reckless as she resorted to melee attacks more than ranged ones, cutting ruthlessly with all her might and speed. Regrettably, they only managed to cut through air.

"Playtime's over."

"Argggghhhhh!" Alan called out as the very center of his body was penetrated by sharp claws. Remilia pulled out her bloodied hand and savored the blood that followed, laughing maniacally during the process.

"Y… you!" Marco was the most affected by Alan's premature death. It was so swift, so merciless, as Alan's eyes were still left open, his frozen face appears the same of a shocked person. Marco waved desperately his axe, his attacks totally uncoordinated, and futile, as Remilia would go on and smashed the bladed part of the axe into pieces with her brute force, giving Marco the utmost shocking revelation of defeat.

Grabbing his face and held him up high, Remilia instantly crushed Marco's head into a bloody mess, right in front of his onlooking teammates.

"Marcoooooo!" Robert had always been close to him, as he was always covering for him during missions. He covered his distance between Remilia and spammed on the trigger, unfortunately, none of the pellets hit the target.

Remilia, with a brief chuckle, rushed onwards and tore his body into half, feasting upon one half and leaving the other half still standing for moment before collapsing lifelessly.

"How dare you!" Barto, grief-stricken with the loss of his three loyal members in such a short time, took the decision to charge in and unleash a series of combos onto the blood-stained enemy. Remilia decided not to dodge any of his attacks this time, instead catching them all effortlessly with her bare hands.

"Had enough?" Remilia taunted as Barto had reached the end of his favorite combination attack, which was so easily stopped. He couldn't believe what just happened, he had never seen anyone best him in such a humiliating manner, as he was touted to be one of the best martial artist in the land. His body soon gave up on fighting as they went into a state of total paralysis from the sole feeling of fear.

Remilia licked the edge of her lips as she used her claws to shred Barto into mincemeat, her claws going through flesh so easily and quickly that within seconds, the corpse of their leader was no longer recognizable.

"No! NOOOO!" Lily was the most emotional in the group, such a grueling sight was terrible to bear as she succumbed herself to the ground, having lost every notion to fight back. Miranda could not believe her eyes as she witnessed one by one, her supposedly competent teammates were taken down so easily. _What is the meaning of this!? Everyone just… went down like it's nothing to her!_

Remilia, having pretty much satisfied with her deeds, walked leisurely onto the numbed Miranda and crying Lily. She reached her hand and put Lily's face intimately close to hers. "Lily! No! STOOOOOP!" Ignoring Miranda's pleas, Remilia proceeded to kiss Lily's lips, at the same time sucking her life force out of her body. Once she was finished, all that's left was a wilted corpse.

Miranda's tears had finally fallen at the sight of losing her newly made best friend. Mouth trembling without a word coming out from it, it all happened again to her: everything dear to her was taken away.

And again, Remilia decided to spare her, chuckling with utmost satisfaction as she turned away and looked towards the doomed town of Rudoore.

"Look," Remilia asked Miranda to look at the town, as she raised a hand to summon a powerful magic, the very same red cross that appeared in Randell before, destroying the town and robbed of all its life from it instantly. Miranda looked on, misery and guilt filling up in her mind as she was unable to change a single thing that had happened before.

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

"The answer is simple," during this instant Remilia dashed in unbelievable speed into Miranda's face, easing her way to her ear, the Scarlet Devil whispered, "I want everything of you."

What Remilia had just proposed had yet to be digested by Miranda, yet the sharp claws of the vampire had already made their mark onto Miranda's unguarded back, carving deep and memorable wounds.

"Argggggghhhhhh!" Immediately reduced to her knees, blood beginning to force their way of Miranda's mouth. The pain much more unbearable than the one she was inflicted on the shoulder by the same opponent.

Remilia stopped behind her and unleashed the loudest laughter one could ever hear. "Too slow… too slow…!" Not waiting for her prey to get back up, she proceeded to plant more scars onto Miranda. Every yell released became a great source of pleasure to the sadistic Scarlet Devil, thoroughly enjoying the entire ordeal.

Once again, Miranda was spared, as the vampire still intended to keep her alive. "That's all for now." Leaving the totally battered girl lying in her own pool of blood, Remilia gradually walked away.

"Why!? Why didn't you kill me!?" Miranda retorted, seemingly more willing to accept death this very moment. The pain suffered from her physical wounds were the most extreme this time, but the damning sensation of losing everything again took the lion's share of her sorrow and despair.

"Not yet."

"!"

"I still haven't gotten everything from you."

"What!?" Everything the vampire said until now still barely made any sense, what did she mean by 'trying to take everything dear away'? 'Fate had already been sealed from the very moment we met'? 'I want everything of you'? Every word she said was just a load of baffling riddles to her, putting forth more confusions into her head.

The one thing she was absolutely certain was that, Remilia would return someday and haunt her.

Her vision gradually blurred, consciousness wading as her blood lost got the better of her. She did hear one last thing before going totally whited out, "we will meet again."


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

After the events of Rudoore, Miranda had chosen the path of a vagabond vampire hunter, opting not to affiliate with anyone. She would travel from one town to another, mostly to replenish her supplies: food rations and her arsenal of silver daggers. She would even avoid staying in inns, doing so lengthened her unnecessary stay, which might jeopardize the entire town's safety. Not having much of a choice, she had already made mother nature her new home.

The past experiences of Randell and Rudoore served to teach her a cruel fact: anyone close to her will be ruthlessly removed from the picture, by none other than the Remilia Scarlet.

What was her purpose in doing all this? Up until this day Miranda still hadn't found the answer. The Scarlet Devil claimed that she hadn't received everything from her, but the question would be, what was it that she seek?

 _However… I am still alive…_ Most likely intentional, but Remilia had refused to end her life. Miranda did not know the agenda of the Scarlet Devil, but the grudge she held against her was too great. She had already admitted that the lesser vampires – ghouls were directly responsible to her. Their outbreak had caused her very first lost – Lidoris, as well as her foster parents, the Roses. Next was Randell and Rudoore, in which she personally performed the unforgivable deeds.

The more Miranda thought of it, the more she couldn't stand that smug little face of that vampire. Always receiving praises about her extraordinary talent, not to mention she no longer wanted to drag anyone into this, after all, her late comrades, the Black Panthers, esteemed vampire hunters on their own right, were totally powerless in front of the Scarlet Devil. Miranda decided she would be the one to put an end to all this. _I will be the one to exterminate her._

So the plan had been laid down. She would avoid as much human contact as possible, while dedicating her fullest in strengthening herself.

Unable to land a single hit onto Remilia, Miranda focused the majority of her training in improving her agility. She believed this would give her the best opportunity to catch up with the vampire as well as boosting her chances for victory.

She vastly improved her sprinting time. Her usual speed would be a twelve-second sprint across a hundred meters. Now she could manage it below eleven seconds.

 _But… Remilia moved as if she vanished and reappeared. This sort of speed wasn't enough!_

Miranda tried pushing herself past the limits, she would fling a dagger forward, and then she attempted to pursue it as well as catching it back without the dagger hitting its supposed target. _If I could be faster than my dagger… then…_

It was a fool's ploy, naturally. No ordinary human would be able to perform such an incredible feat. Her own dagger throwing skills was already superb, packing magnificent speed and power on the projectile. It would be folly to throw it half-heartedly just to catch it, like if the vampire would be pulling any punches next time they meet.

Despite the odds, Miranda kept trying. There's no way around it.

Bracing herself under the harsh weather, Miranda would train under the scorching heats of summer, the unrelenting rain of fall, as well as the merciless cold of winter. There were also hazards coming from wild beasts and ghouls, the latter probably thought that Miranda had invaded their abodes. They could no longer provide her with any challenge, however.

 _How long has it been?_

Not enjoying much human contact for two years, as well as images of Remilia kept haunting her every night, Miranda had begun to become more and more paranoid and depressed. She longed for human company, during brief appearances in towns she had become uneasy around people, as if like a fish out of water.

There were also times where she couldn't find any involvements in ghoul hunting to earn herself some pennies to spend. It wasn't wise for her to wait too long in town. Therefore she would had to hunt down wild animals such as bears and deer for their meat, but during winter this proved to be even more unforgiving, as these animals would hardly appear, preferring to cuddle in their respective homes and wait for the cold to subside. There were also times where she became too engrossed with her training that she forgot to eat or replenish her supplies.

Which was why, starvation also became a prominent part of Miranda's endeavors. Recovery from the strenuous trainings had slowed down due to sheer exhaustion and fatigue, most importantly the lack of nutrition to come by. Miranda gradually become malnourished, not able to keep up the supreme standards she set for herself.

 _Had my methods… all this while… been wrong?_ Clouds of doubts had enveloped Miranda's head. For two whole years, there wasn't any sign of Remilia, _What could she be thinking?_ The vampire had promised that they would meet again someday during their last confrontation. Could it be that she had already forgotten about Miranda due to boredom?

 _If that's true… then it's also… a good thing…_

Miranda collapsed from her training, famished from her lack of food during the past months of winter. It was early spring as the rain kept pouring down heavily, but she was too tired to retreat to her home, a sheltered cave. She lied down under the rain and closed her eyes, waiting for her energy to come back to her.

"Hey… are you alright?"

A human's voice.

It couldn't be.

Miranda struggled to open her eyes, what she saw was something she had longed for some time, yet now extremely afraid to embrace.

 _No…_

"Get… away… from me…" opposing with a weak voice, Miranda tried to push away the female human who approached her due to sheer kindness.

"No! Look at you! You are in such a bad condition!" She must be referring to Miranda's battered body as well as emaciated limbs, a seemingly helpless girl lying under the pouring rain. "Why are you here? Where do you live?"

Miranda could not answer any of the questions. She was afraid. What if after she answered any of them, the girl would proceed with more questions, and they inadvertently became closer to each other? What if another innocent life would be taken away by Remilia just like that, just because said person had become "dear" to Miranda?

She tried again to resist help, but ultimately her mind went blank and she passed out. "No…"


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

As she had finally come by, Miranda found herself lying in a cave, the one she had been living in for the past three months. The cold winter had prevented her from changing homes, as well as make her way to the distant villages. Yet she refused to skip any training, until her body had broken down, which really did become a reality today.

She was comfortably covered with a brand new blanket, so thick and made out of wool. Her soaked clothes removed and hung dry while she was changed a new set.

"Ouch…" her head was still throbbing, sharp pain surrounding it.

"You finally awake?" The girl who helped her showed up with bags of foods in them. She greeted her with a wild grin, then laid down her things as she proceeded to put the back of her hand onto Miranda's forehead. Miranda shrieked, but was still too weak to resist.

"The fever hasn't gone down…" said the girl, puffing her cheeks. "What were you thinking? Alone out there in the rain… also, what are you trying to do, starving yourself?"

The girl was surely rowdy and energetic. Not waiting for Miranda's reply, "my name's Carol, nice to meet ya!" Carol then reached out her hand and grabbed Miranda's for a handshake, smiling very contently.

Miranda was totally caught off-guard by this sudden hospitality. "You…" she tried to chase her away, but her stomach was a step earlier as it growled loudly before Miranda could finish her sentence.

"Hee hee! I knew it! You must be starved, eh? Lucky you to meet the sweet and pretty Carol!" She quickly hopped over to her bags of foods and pulled out a handful of hamburgers out. "Here! Eat these!" She then shoved them into Miranda's hands, not concerned whether she accepts them or not.

Miranda stared at the burgers for a few seconds, totally unsure how to deal with the situation. "Don't worry! They are really good!" Carol went and grabbed one for herself, shoving it down her throat instantly, as she exclaimed "Umm…! It hit the spot!" Totally satisfied with the food.

She would not want to further endanger the kind girl who just wanted to help, yet the sensation of hunger bellowing in her stomach was too intense that it convinced her to chomp on the burgers as well, to the point she ate them too fast she choked herself. "Man…! Be easy on yourself, okay?" Carol passed her a bottle of water to wash it down, "you pushed yourself too hard that you are now in such a bad state."

Miranda stayed silent after relieving her throat of the obstruction, and continued biting her burgers without a single reply. "Not even a thanks?" She got her. Meekly, Miranda replied, "thanks…"

"Now that's a good girl!" said Carol as she patted Miranda's head, in which she blushed and became flustered. It's been so long since someone did that to her.

Carol started some idle chatter to warm Miranda up, starting from asking about her name and origins, as well as what was she doing in such a terrible place, all worn out. Miranda, although reluctantly so, felt very grateful to such companionship, and gradually began to disclose her secrets to her new friend, one subject to another.

Carol was living in the small village of Taradi, not too far away from the forest cave they were currently in. She often had to cross the forest to reach the town of Plitra, a much larger town, to stock up some supplies they might not have in their own village, as well as selling their own products there. Her family excelled in farming, owning their own ranch, mostly raising chickens and selling eggs as well as grown chickens to make a living. Her parents would take care of the farm while she would be responsible to push the cart to Plitra.

She might not look like it, but she's a year older than Miranda, who was now fourteen. Her easygoing yet kind attitude made Miranda easily warm herself up to her.

"You are a vampire hunter?" Carol was utterly surprised when Miranda revealed her profession, eyes wide as she dropped her third burger from her hands.

Miranda was embarrassed from the sense of guilt initially, vampire hunting wasn't really a decent job to begin with, and you would always get your hands dirty on the job, with black blood splattered all over you every time. Not to mention, their gazes revealed the sad tale of their dangerous lives, betting them on the line every time an assignment showed up. No way would a simple village girl like Carol appreciate having a friend with such a job.

"That's awesome!" Carol held both of Miranda's hands and waved them up and down in excitement, "literally, you are our savior! Protector of peace! Wow!" So it didn't went down as Miranda had expected, this girl in front of her definitely didn't have all her brain cells connected the same way as other people. "You know, having you guys around really gave us an easier time to sleep soundly every night! We know very well that we are in safe hands against those vampires."

Then it came back to Miranda, Iris never looked at her with disdain, nor the Black Panthers being intimidated by the villagers of Rudoore. She knocked her head with her knuckle, _why am I being so bothered about this_? Her solitude life for the past two years really got into her, changing her mindset drastically due to the lack of human contact. Hopefully and thankfully, Carol would bring back her humanistic qualities.

Carol then attempted to bring Miranda back to her village, yet Miranda was still uncertain about it after factoring a certain vampire might get in the way, so Miranda would continue residing in the cave by herself, with Carol bringing in food and some clean clothes for her. Carol promised that she would not tell any of the Taradi villagers that Miranda was residing in the cave, respecting her friend's wishes.

Miranda felt saved, both in her physical state, as well as her mental wellbeing.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

It was again a rainy day, which came so suddenly after Carol was in the middle of her usual business trips, just leaving to Plifer after promising Miranda she would get her its famous burgers.

The day had turned dark yet Carol had not returned, _where could she be?_ Miranda became worried, at the same time hungry.

Flashes of lightning and roars of thunder also joined the pouring rain, making Miranda more worrisome.

She looked out of her cave as far as she could, hopefully to catch Carol running to her from afar.

And the wait was over, from the flash of the lightning, she could briefly see Carol in the middle of the rain, waving her hand to her. Miranda waved back, hoping the other could see her.

"I was waiting for this moment."

 _What!? That voice…_

Then another lightning flashed in, revealing a second female figure, this one much smaller and wears a puffy dress, behind Carol.

 _No!_

Much to Miranda's horror, Carol's figure collapsed at the end of the second lightning flash. _No… no…! It can't be!_ Fearing the worst had finally come, she dashed out of the cave into the heavy rain.

 _Please… not Carol… not again…!_

It was exactly as she had envisioned, Carol's unmoving body laid limp on the ground as her blood dyed the pools of rain on the mud red. The person who stood right beside her, was none other than the Scarlet Devil.

Remilia Scarlet.

"YOU!" Miranda screamed, releasing all her anger at once and glared at the vampire, her fiery gaze burning wildly, not extinguished at all by the heavy rain. Remilia, on the other hand, chuckled for a little bit, then showcased her famous maniacal laughter again after witnessing the thoroughly maddened look of the vampire hunter.

"Finally, I had kept my promise."

Miranda replied not with words, but a dagger throw filled with utmost hatred and resentment towards the vampire. Remilia caught it easily with two of her fingers, "still as hasty as ever, I see."

"Again and again and again! You took everything away from me!"

"Hmm? I thought I made my intentions very clear from the very beginning?"

"Why are you doing this!? Are you having a lot of fun?"

Remilia paused, having some inner delight going on, she lowered her head a little, before tilting it back up with a change of expression, she bared her sharp teeth with a wide grin, as if like a wild tiger bearing its fangs.

"Indeed! Seeing you suffer always make me smile, makes me grin, makes happy and laugh! Oh…! I cannot get enough of your enraged look, it looked so… gorgeous!"

Both of them spoke up with highly raised voices, Miranda out of pure rage, while Remilia out of pure amusement. Their eyes locked on for the longest time, inside Miranda's head, she constantly reminded herself of the foul deeds the Scarlet Devil had done, causing her all the grief and misery. If she had done it out of pure amusement for herself, that was barbaric and inhumane to the fullest, something Miranda would never forgive.

"Why don't you try taking me down, here and now, then?"

It was this taunt of Remilia that got Miranda started. All veins and muscles stiffened, Miranda went and pulled her dagger, six at a time, flinging them with her strongest at the vampire. Remilia just dodged them by weaving left and right, as if teleporting around the battlefield. Miranda was expecting this, dashing instantly as she threw her daggers, pulling two more out and proceeded with her melee combo, hacking down her foe with renewed vigor fueled with anger and resentment.

Remilia was slightly surprised by Miranda's rapid improvement, and stepped up the gear as she dodged her attacks a bit more seriously than she usually did. Miranda was much craftier this time, as she practiced combining both melee and ranged attacks, just for this day.

Miranda could fit many more knives at one time, as her body grew a lot due to puberty, now nearing the build of a fully grown woman, she could fit forty knives, slotting them in every possible place she could tie them around, at the same time considering that they would not hinder her movements too much, maneuverability still remained top priority.

This time, there were a few opportunities that Miranda almost could get a hit on the vampire, her reading on Remilia's movements better now, as she could catch up with her superb agility. Miranda could also fend off some attacks from the vampire, which consisted of some occasional slashes from her claws as well as some projectiles that shaped like red icicles that Remilia released from her fingers.

Most of the time, Miranda would be in the center while Remilia dodged all around her. This had persisted for more than a minute, until…

Whooosh!

Remilia's cheek began to bleed slightly from a superficial cut from Miranda's dagger, it stung a little, the sensation long time not felt by the Scarlet Devil as no one would be able to lay a finger on her normally.

Miranda could feel her dagger finally connected onto something, its tip slightly bloodied catching some from the vampire. Confidence quickly surged within her, finally feeling the opponent was within grasp, possible to be defeated.

Remilia who retreated some distance immediately after suffering a hit, used her thumb to wipe the wound. Upon seeing her own blood, she grinned.

Miranda was still wondering why she grinned, but no time to think as Remilia immediately blinked before her, "still not enough", and took a small bite at Miranda's unguarded nape.

"ARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Miranda quickly collapsed to the ground, her right hand holding her left nape, now a small piece of flesh missing, the pain reaching deep and spread all over her shoulder and back. Remilia took her sweet time to chew on her battle spoils before swallowing it, then licking her lips all over until there's no more blood lingering at the edges of her mouth, all for Miranda to see.

"Oh my, you are surprisingly delicate and tender. Ufufufufufu…"

"Y… you…!" Once again, Miranda had to watch Remilia from the ground, the vampire looking down on her while she, unwillingly, gazed above.

"Indeed, you've improved, but you still need a little more," said Remilia. She took a moment to ponder, then continued, "come and chase after me, every night, I will be there."

"D… damn you…"

Having had her fun, Remilia turned into bats and flew off the scene, leaving the defeated Miranda on the ground under the heavy rain.


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Having treated her wounds as well as salvaged all her daggers from the previous battle, Miranda abandoned her cave and began to wander again.

Daytime was mostly uneventful. But the opposite happened during night time. The vampire did keep her promise and showed up, taunted the vampire hunter before skirmishing with her for a few moments, and made sure to leave a wound.

"More… I want more…!"

Remilia always said something similar along the lines during the end of their brief encounter. She would allow Miranda to resist a little, before putting in superficial wounds all around her body, one at a time. As if a child playing with a moth, ripping off its wings, one at the time.

No matter where Miranda went, Remilia would immediately knew of her whereabouts and made her appearance, never a time her attendance was missed.

This persisted for sixteen days.

It was the sixteenth night, the moon shone its fullest and brightest tonight. Miranda and Remilia met again for their unnotified yet as if predestined battle, this time on a field of blooming irises. The field of blue covered a large area, almost as large as a football field.

Miranda, battered and full of bandages from the wounds inflicted by the vampire, arrived exhausted and panting.

"My, my, tired already? We haven't start yet."

"Are you sure this is fun?" Miranda now able to speak very directly to her arch nemesis, already chasing and facing her for so many years. The two of them had inadvertently become very familiar with each other, Miranda could recognize the Scarlet Devil's high pitched and childish voice from afar.

"Of course, I want everything of you. You have yet to accomplish that."

"What more do you want?"

Remilia initiated the battle this time, charging head on with her wings as she bared her fangs trying for a bite. Miranda dodged quickly by rolling to a side, each movement becoming more difficult due to the pain radiating from many places in her body.

"Come on! Faster! Faster!" Remilia continued her barrage of attacks, mostly charging ones as she attempted to mow Miranda down. Miranda was completely on the defensive, with her opportunities of attack not coming any more frequently as compared to the time she managed to leave a scratch on the vampire's cheek.

There were times she could dodge the attacks, there were times she couldn't. This time, the vampire did not stop after landing the first attack, and she attacked more ruthlessly as compared to the previous fifteen nights.

"What's the matter? Don't you want to defeat me? Don't you resent me so much?" Remilia kept taunting and taunting as she landed hit after hit on the weakened Miranda, causing new wounds as well as old wounds to open back up. Her body looked like a sculpture now, carved all over.

Miranda could barely stand, her feet gradually giving way as she began to lose her strength from the bleeding. Feelings of despair began to grow and grow in her. _This is it…_

Remilia charged in again from a distance, Miranda looked on with hopeless eyes at first, _no, I can't let it end here!_ Her eyes quickly opened up and gave out a different aura, this one of desperation. Pulling all her strength together, she jumped sideways, barely avoiding the vampire's attack.

Remilia stopped after her charge went past Miranda, not immediately facing towards the vampire hunter, "Patchouli," she called out, "did you feel it?"

"Indeed, she finally reactivated it again after 3 years." A long, purple haired girl materialized herself in mid-air, she wore long and purplish robes, Miranda never saw something similar among the common townsfolk, indicating that she's not from around here. Another being shrouded by mystery, Miranda retook her stance, assuming that this newcomer was one of Remilia's friends, an enemy.

"Good… gooooooood…!" Remilia again released her maniacal laugh, this time loudest, that every birds from the perimeter all flew away from the shock. She immediately resumed her attacks, "again…! Again…! Again…! Show me again!"

Miranda was totally puzzled by those two speaking riddles. But again Remilia pushed her towards the brink of desperation, cutting every attack very close.

Just as a barrage of red icicles began flying her way and it seemed too late to dodge it, Miranda again made it out safe, jumping away just inches away from contact.

"There it is again. This time longer," said Patchouli.

Miranda looked up and pulled a quick one as she threw a dagger towards the floating Magician. However, the dagger would just stop midway, enveloped by a ball of water.

"What?" seeing Patchouli conjuring a water ball out of nothing shocked the vampire hunter. "Is… is this… magic?"

Patchouli retracted her magic, releasing the dagger from the water ball, which dropped straight down to the ground after losing all its acceleration. "Indeed, I am a magician, my name is Patchouli Knowledge. I am a friend of Remilia's. You, Miranda Rose, are capable of using magic as well."

"What? Me?" Miranda was dumbfounded by Patchouli's words. What magic? She barely had any knowledge to it, and now she was told she could use it?

"Telling her already, Patchouli?" Remilia asked.

"I deduce that this might be a better solution in awakening her power. At this rate, she will die before her time stopping ability is fully awakened."

"Time… stopping…?" Miranda gasped, since when she was capable of such a thing?

Still dazed by the question, she did not realize Remilia had fired more red icicles towards her before it was too late.

 _No!_

Then it occurred to her, the icicles suddenly stopped in their tracks, not moving forward for an instant, Remilia and Patchouli also ceased to move for a while. She hastily jumped out of harm's way, and as she did so, the projectiles moved again and missed their target, so did the two opponents.

It was then, Miranda realized what was going on.

By "everything", Remilia wanted Miranda to unleash this very power, for what? Miranda had yet to know.

But with this newfound power, she believed the chance to finally turn the tables had come.

Miranda tried to toss a dagger forward towards the vampire as she willed for the time to stop again, indeed, it did. The dagger would pause midway, away from her fingers, and she could run up to it and catch it, something she had failed to do the past two years.

Not retracting the floating dagger from its path, she let it resume its course as Miranda proceeded to dash as fast as she could to cut down the distance between her and Remilia, during this unique time-space where only her, and her alone, could move.

Time resumed, Remilia realized she had lost track of Miranda as she no longer stood at where she was before. Suddenly appearing right below her, she was unable to dodge an uppercut from Miranda's surprise attack, and got cut in the forehead, a string of blood began flowing down.

"You…" Remilia was shocked by what Miranda had just did. The vampire hunter had just vanished and reappeared at unbelievable speed, all the while without being noticed.

"This was the longest period of time she had stopped." Patchouli clarified. "It seemed she was beginning to have some control of it as well."

"Wonderful! WONDERFUL!" Remilia was propelled to sheer delight as she had finally realized what she wanted, after observing her prey all these years. She went on for a rampage with her full strength to see how Miranda would fight back.

The vampire hunter did so with flying colors.

Most of the time Remilia's attacks looked as if they would surely connect, only to see Miranda vanished and reappeared, dodging the attack entirely, as well as being able to return surprise attacks that left the vampire without any room to move around them, and for the very first time, the Scarlet Devil was the one who kept getting hits, and being pushed back.

"Oh my, I never realize that time stopping can be used in such an aggressive manner." Patchouli was able to feel every single time magic was used by Miranda, they were of instantaneous and rapid manner, up to three to five times a second, where Miranda would just stop enough to dodge the attack and return one of her own, and the vampire would just freeze on the spot and receive the hit after time had resumed ticking.

If likened to the moving hands of a clock, what Miranda was doing would be equivalent to an old and rusted second hand, moving "a second" slightly slower than a second in real time. Ten seconds in the real time would be around twelve for Miranda, as she had free movement for her own for two seconds, not continuously but in a rapid and intermittent manner.

This method proved to be extremely effective during close combat, as she totally overpowered the Scarlet Devil.

"ENOUGH!" Remilia pulled herself away as Miranda's melee barrage became too much for her to handle. Now full of scars and cuts from the silvery knife, the vampire was the one that appear battered. She would have to be thankful as she also got enough speed to avoid a deadly slash or being stabbed by a sudden flying dagger.

"I want you now… I WANT YOU NOW!" Remilia tensed her entire body and released a huge, red aura out of her. The impact so huge that Miranda could not approach her, unable to maintain her advantage. Not having much of a choice, Miranda had to stand back, braced herself for whatever the vampire was attempting.

Remilia's fangs and claws became longer, as well as her wings, which spread thrice as large as before. All the red aura then condensed into Remilia's right hand as she put it up and gathered all the energy, solidifying them into a form of a spear, so large that it was larger than a five-story building.

"T… this is!?"

"SPEAR THE GUNGNIR!" Remilia then launched the humongous spear-like projectile forwards with blazing speed, the size of the spear as well its unbelievable acceleration baffled Miranda, who tried desperately to stop time as long and many times as she could to give herself sufficient time to move away.

She barely made it, but still took major damage, the spear from the powerful spell managed to graze her side and crippled one of her arms, causing major bleeding and pain.

Miranda screamed, but this time she had no time to hold her wound as Remilia quickly appeared in front of her and held her waist up.

"Miranda Rose," Remilia declared, "Your fate is now mine."

Remilia grabbed hold of Miranda's head with her enlarged palm, squeezed it tightly, and chanted an incantation. A red spark then came out of Remilia's hand and Miranda screamed even louder, her only movable hand grabbing the demonic hand on her head trying to pull it away, but to no avail. During this time, Miranda struggled the most, yelling with pain in her head as the magic tried to conquer her from the inside.

"Resistance is futile, dear hunter." Patchouli looked on, as she descended and slowly floated her way nearer to witness the moment.

The brainwashing spell persisted for quite some time, until Miranda had become silent, passing out from the conclusion of the spell.

Remilia laughed to her utmost content, finally achieving her goals and succeeding in conquering the vampire hunter.

"She needs a new name," Patchouli suggested.

"Indeed."

"She needs a name that had no connections with her past." Patchouli closed her eyes and pondered briefly, "we are going to move to Gensokyo anyway, why not give her an eastern name?"

"Ufufufu… great idea. In respect of the blossoming flowers that witnessed the events today, on the sixteenth night of our hunt." Remilia looked into the unconscious face of Miranda.

"Sakuya, Sakuya Izayoi. That would your new name."


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Not long after Sakuya had gotten her new name, she was installed as the personal servant for Remilia. Remilia referred to her was "the best maid I've ever had", and the time was right to make Sakuya one as the previous one had just left.

Sakuya was taught of the etiquettes and mannerisms to become a proper maid, mostly modelled after a Western one, only fitting because the master she served was of Western origin. Remilia stepped it up by having the most outrageous requests and the least room for tolerance.

Since coming to Gensokyo, Sakuya was the only maid in the mansion. Remilia had hired more fairies to assist her, yet none of them have better domestic skills than Sakuya, who was also the only one capable of meeting the Scarlet Devil's high standards, bringing her tea and any form of service should the vampire desired it.

Having her brain manipulated, her initially blue eyes were now red, Sakuya had totally forgotten about her past as a vampire hunter, and was heavily engrossed with the task of cleaning the mansion. She did her job splendidly, earning herself the rank of head maid in a very short time, giving her the authority to oversee all the fairy maids and ensure they performed their duty well.

Patchouli initially suggested against allowing Sakuya to fight again, worried that she would be reminded of her past and would rebel against her mistress. Remilia wasn't too worried, claiming that "she will not be able to defeat me, no matter what." So, Sakuya was returned of her battle gear – the silver knives, and be allowed to do whatever she pleases with them.

Naturally, she was also informed of her ability to manipulate time, as that was the main reason why Remilia wanted her, "let her use it, as much as she wants, and let her enhance it as well." Sakuya was able to keep up with her heavy workload by using her ability, pleasing Remilia more than ever.

One day, Remilia thought that Sakuya would be ready for a new task.

"Sakuya, there's one more room that I had always forbid you to clean it."

"Indeed, milady, I had never entered it, not even a single step." Sakuya replied obediently.

Remilia observed Sakuya for a moment, confirming that her spell that was cast unto her was still intact, she was satisfied with this brief demonstration of loyalty.

"Very well, starting today, you will be allowed to enter that room, and clean it."

"Understood." There wasn't single moment of hesitation from Sakuya as she accepted those orders.

"Bring your combat gear as well, be well equipped." Remilia said nonchalantly as she sipped her tea, glanced at Sakuya briefly seeing whether the notion of bring her knives would shake the mind of her servant.

"As you wish." Sakuya merely bowed, one hand in front of her chest, eyes closed. Not a single shred of doubt surfaced from her expression.

Remilia grinned, "Go then, your job here is done." She waved to relieve Sakuya from the room, in which she promptly nodded and proceeded to perform her new task.

"So finally, she will be cleaning the little mistress's room." Patchouli opened a portal from thin air and entered the room after Sakuya had left Remilia's chambers.

"It was only a matter of time. I believe she's ready."

"I had given her pointers to improve her magic. She should be having no problems holding out against Flandre right now."

"Let us enjoy this magnificent performance, then."

Sakuya, still yet to have free will for herself, brought cleaning utensils, together with her battle arsenal, as per her master's orders, headed to basement and proceeded to open the door to the room she was not allowed to step into back then.

The room was dark, so Sakuya went and turn on the lights, the switch just beside the door. Once illuminated, the room was revealed to be rather small, the decorations were made as if the owner of the room was a child. There were numerous figurines and stuffed toys lying about, but all of them were broken or tore apart.

"Who are you?" Sakuya immediately turned to face the voice, and found a little girl sitting on her bed, holding a ball in her arms. Her clothing resembled the young mistress', and she also had wings, with eight colorful crystals dangling from each sides, notably different than Remilia's which resembled a bat's.

"I am the head maid of this mansion, my name is Sakuya. I am here to clean up this room, under the mistress' orders." Sakuya said bluntly, her expression blank.

The girl noticed the maid costume Sakuya was wearing as well as the broom and mop she held in her hands, so the intention about cleaning didn't sound to be a lie. The room was indeed dirty, especially the sides and corners where dust accumulated easily, and the thickness of the dust suggested that the room might not receive any maintenance for several years. To imagine there was someone living inside this room, given such a poor environment.

"Cleaning? Big sis never bothered to clean this room at all." The girl spoke softly, her voice barely coming out, as her vocal cords were not used for some time. "Sometimes, a stray maid may come here on her own. It was very nice of her." She squeezed the ball as she continued, bursting it with unbelievable strength, "but she didn't last long when we played together."

The girl hopped down of her bed and approached Sakuya, planting her face close to hers. "Say, are you good at playing?"

Sakuya remained unfazed, "I only received orders to clean the room. Playing was not part of it."

The girl grinned, as if not understanding the statement, she pushed her palm towards Sakuya's torso, releasing a blast of energy which blew Sakuya backwards, blowing her through the door and into the open hallway.

"My name is Flandre, let's play!"


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Flandre summoned a barrage of colorful bullets and hurled them towards Sakuya, in which the other retaliated by jumping upwards and flung her own daggers. The little vampire chose not to dodge them, instead blowing them up and vaporized them.

Still midair, Sakuya, maneuvered herself to land behind Flandre, dashing towards her as soon as she touched the ground, engaging into close combat. Flandre immediately summoned what seemed to be a spear shaped like a crooked hand of a clock needle, and wielded it masterfully to thwart any of Sakuya's melee combos.

When their weapons clashed, it was always Flandre who emerged victorious between their contests of strength. As such, Sakuya opted not to parry that peculiar weapon of the vampire's, casting her time stopping spell in rapid succession to dance around and strike the constantly stopping and moving foe.

"You are… fast!" In Flandre's eyes, Sakuya was merely moving with great agility, as she did not stop time sufficiently to allow her to move in a very farfetched manner. Taking many hits, Flandre began to get more and more excited, as she broke free of Sakuya's pummeling and flew up in the air.

"You are powerful, Sakuya!" Flandre held her clock needle spear high up her head, infused it with fire and enlarged it tenfold. "It's been a while since I used this!"

When done imbuing her weapon with enhanced power, Flandre swooped down and used her unusual wings to glide around the room, swinging around her large spear.

In order to deal with such a large assault, Sakuya had no choice but to stop time for a longer period, which finally caused Flandre to realize the oddity in her movements, as she would just vanish and reappear in a totally different location, not to mention every time Sakuya disappeared impossibly, new daggers would just suddenly appear and rain down on her.

"Is this your ability? You're amazing!" This little girl was pretty gifted in battle but hardly had any experience, so was unable to figure out the reason behind Sakuya's peculiar movements. Seizing this advantage, Sakuya remained having the upper hand, dodging every single attack and landed some of her own.

But Flandre was still standing strong despite taking countless hits, blood had already been trickling from her body for a while now, but she didn't seem to grow weaker as the battle goes, instead the opposite occurred, she would become faster and stronger as the match dragged on.

"Nice! How about this?" Flandre then flew up high again, out of Sakuya's reach. With a yell, she split herself into four, each of them having identical appearances and power. In each of their hand, the burning spear was still intact.

Sakuya braced herself knowing the dire situation she was currently in. From all directions, Flandre stormed the room and swept the room mercilessly and recklessly, as if a raving child having her utmost fun destroying her toys, the room was severely damaged and the ceiling began to crumble. Sakuya would have to dodge the flurry of attacks from Flandre, as well as the rocky hazards from the surroundings.

It became more and more difficult for Sakuya to pull out her dagger and hurl them, as there was almost no room of opportunity to do so. Stopping time didn't help much as the attacks came to close of each other, and all the time was spent just to move away to a miniature safe location.

"It's over!" Flandre finally had Sakuya cornered and caught her from behind, slamming down her spear and brought the airborne Sakuya crushing towards the ground, suffering heavy damage.

Sakuya coughed blood, her body totally numb from the impact. Flandre laughed loudly with delight, "I've won! I've won!" Her clones were then retracted, leaving the real body floating above Sakuya.

But before she was done celebrating, Sakuya clenched her fist and gritted her teeth, manipulated the space around her to open several portals all over the room which had daggers coming out from all of them.

"Haaaaa!" With one last gasp of breath, Sakuya commanded the daggers to direct their target towards Flandre. Barrages of daggers kept coming out from the portals as they rained down onto Flandre from all directions, like a trapped rabbit.

"What?" Flandre was totally caught off-guard by this final attack and got stabbed by countless daggers, pinning her down to the ground on the other side of the hall, like a porcupine.

Now sharing the similar fate as Sakuya, Flandre had never suffered so much pain before, and began to cry and flail her body all over. "It hurts! It hurts!"

"Now, now, Flandre, play time's over." Remilia's voice was heard as she was seen descending into the scene after exiting a portal conjured by Patchouli, who also entered the hall after Remilia.

"It was an impressive battle, Sakuya managed to do more damage to Flandre than I had expected." Patchouli remarked, floating her away towards the injured maid. "She desperately needed some immediate treatment, or else her life would be in danger."

"Patch her up, would you? She's only human, and she's my valuable servant. Oh and fix up everything that's damaged as well," said Remilia, smiling at her friend as she held her sister in her hands and brought her to her own chamber.

"What would you do without me…?" Patchouli shook her head, summoning the five philosopher's stones and performed the necessary spells to return everything back to normal.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

One day, the skies of Gensokyo was enveloped by a thick red mist, blocking out the sun leaving not a single speck of light through it. The land was engulfed by everlasting darkness, as if daybreak had vanished altogether.

The red mist was enacted by none other than the one Scarlet Devil, who expressed her desire to roam the land of Gensokyo regardless of the hour of the day. This incident was eventually known as the "Scarlet Mist Incident", not a single living being would not know of it, as everyone's lives were deeply affected by the lack of sunlight.

The shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, carrying the responsibility of maintaining Gensokyo's peace on her shoulders, brought to herself to solve this incident. She infiltrated the Scarlet Devil Mansion, took down the gate guardian Hong Meiling in the process.

"Why is this hallway so long?" Reimu had been flying through the main hallway for 10 minutes, but had seen nothing much other than those pesky fairy maids attacking her in the perpetually-looking hallway. The hallway didn't look wide, but the length was ridiculous, going as far as several miles yet no end was at sight. "Must be someone putting up a spell on this one…" Reimu thought to herself.

"That's far enough." An apathetic and cold voice rang out from the hallway, Reimu stopped immediately, looking for the source of the voice. The place she stopped was unique, it had the only flight of stairs in the entire hallway, and it led to a door, which according to Reimu's trusty intuition, would be where the culprit was hiding.

"Is the door behind leading to the perpetrator behind the red mist?" Reimu inquired.

"That is correct. My mistress, Remilia Scarlet lies just behind the door. However…" Sakuya vanished right in front of Reimu and reappeared behind her, whispering to her ear, "I do not intend to let you pass."

After saying that, Sakuya greeted Reimu with a point blank dagger throw, which Reimu barely able to dodge it by lowering her head backwards, causing her to almost fall onto her rear. The shrine maiden quickly got back up and jumped some distances away, releasing several purifying needles and ofudas to attack the head maid.

Sakuya did not dodge them normally, prompting to disappear abruptly not leaving a single trace, causing the projectiles to hit nothing, then appear at a safe spot beside the missed projectiles. Reimu noticed this strange behavior, as she could not read Sakuya's movements as all. _How did she move like that?_

"Too slow." Sakuya vanished again, this time reappearing airborne, with tons of daggers materializing together with her, flying towards the Hakurei miko. Reimu, just in time to spot Sakuya's whereabouts, just barely dodge the daggers by deflecting them with her staff.

Reimu also made a leap, pulling out a spell card which held her midair for a few seconds, a magical circle was formed around her as she made a brief incantation. "Spirit Sign – Fantasy Orb!" Several rainbow-colored spherical orbs appeared behind her and home into the head maid. Sakuya did not seem to have the intention of avoiding them until the very last second, where Reimu was shocked to discover her orbs hit nothing again but air. _Where did she go!?_

"So, you used a spell card." Sakuya said aloofly as she reappeared in an opposite direction, pulled out a spell card of herself, "Illusion Sign – Killer Doll", the space around them was bent and manipulated, causing numerous portals to open up, each of them followed by a line of daggers. Sakuya moved her fingers, causing the knives to fly into their target with superb acceleration from every direction.

A series of barrages followed, with Sakuya looking patiently at her prey, smoke blocking her view which appeared just as the knives made contact with the shrine maiden. As expected, the miko was unharmed, as she enacted a barrier to protect herself from harm's way.

It was Duplex Barrier, one of Reimu's emergency defensive spell cards, only used when she found herself cornered and nowhere to run. Such a maneuver left Reimu panting from mental exhaustion, as she had only a fragment of a second to make the choice and pull the spell out, else she became mincemeat from the dicing of the knives.

Sakuya's expression remained unchanged at the sight of seeing the shrine maiden still standing. She stopped time again and rushed towards Reimu, reactivating it just as she ran up into the face of the miko, totally unguarded with her onrushing melee attacks.

Deflecting Sakuya's twin knives with her purifying staff as well as dodging them by a hair's breadth, Reimu stood no chance against Sakuya in close combat. She quickly threw an exploding ofuda on the ground causing it to blow up, giving her some window to jump away and returning the battle to a ranged one. Within those few seconds of close-range clashes, Reimu had already suffered numerous cuts and gashes, many of which she did not recall how she got them from Sakuya.

 _Her ability to fight in close range… is frightening…_ That brief confrontation left Reimu trembling, knowing she had absolutely zero chances of winning should the melee battle dragged any longer.

Sakuya's face remained cold and blank, making it more difficult for Reimu to read her opponent. Sakuya proceeded to pull out another one of her spell cards, wishing for a quick end of this fight. "Conjuring – Illusional Misdirection", time had stopped again, as Sakuya pulled out all her daggers from her arsenal and hurled them randomly towards Reimu, at the same time manipulating the space between every daggers, causing a second, identical dagger to appear alongside their twin, but in a slightly different angle. This would be an all-range attack, with nowhere to hide.

But just as Sakuya resumed time, a huge laser came flying into the scene, causing Sakuya to recall her spell and move away.

"That attack… Marisa!" Reimu called out, immediately recognizing the user of such a powerful spell.

"Hehe, it's me, alright!" The black-white magician barged into the scene on her broom, holding her mini-hakkero in her right hand where her favorite Master Spark was fired from.

"Why are you here?" Reimu asked, forgetting about Sakuya in the moment.

"I saw you coming towards this suspicious looking mansion, so I've come along!" Marisa replied energetically, seemingly proud of herself for saving Reimu's ass. "Get going! I will take care of her! Save your energy for the big boss!"

Reimu hesitated for a moment, before deciding that was the best option, and took off for the door behind Sakuya. "Avoid close combat against her, Marisa!"

"Got it!"

Sakuya sensed Reimu's intention and attempted to pursue her with a string of dagger throws, only to see them being blasted down by some star-shaped danmaku. "Your opponent is me!" Marisa pointed her index finger towards the head maid.

Sakuya ignored the magician's challenge, attempted to run up the stairway to stop the shrine maiden from going any further, but the end of the stairway was also reduced into crumbles by one of Marisa's lasers. "I said, your opponent is me!"

The head maid turned back, and sighed, "very well." She pulled out the spell card she recalled just now, and recast it, "Conjuring – Illusional Misdirect…"

"Light Sign – Earthlight Ray!" Marisa cast her spell slightly faster, causing numerous lasers sprouting from the ground and shoot upwards. They were arranged randomly and seemingly coming out of everywhere, which was Marisa's favorite approach of the battle – attack anywhere and everywhere.

Sakuya dodged the lasers easily with her superb agility and time stopping ability. But before she knew it, the ground beneath her collapsed, causing her to fall through the floor, and into the lowest floor.

"Sorry! You will have to stay there for a while!" Marisa held her steeple hat and flew off the scene via her broom, to catch up with Reimu in beating up the culprit.

Sakuya pulled herself together, trying to return to the hallway, but was stopped by a voice in her head. "That's enough, Sakuya, leave the rest to me."

"But… milady!" It was Remilia who addressed her, still having the power to control her mind.

"Let them come, I am itching for a good fight myself."

"Yes, milady."

Sakuya then took her time to release herself from the crumbles of debris, and returned to her cleaning duty.

Not long afterwards, it was heard that the battle had already ended, with the Scarlet Devil admitting defeat at the hands of Reimu and Marisa. Sakuya found it difficult to believe such a story, as she already fought against those two, and in her mind thoroughly believed that her mistress should be notches more powerful than them.

"I had enough fun, so I called it quits." So that's how it was. Remilia didn't lose, she just ended the battle after satisfying her battle hunger. The shrine maiden and magician did put up a decent fight, causing Remilia to use up a lot of her spell card arsenals, as well as dealing with the ones those two threw at her. It was a fierce battle that nobody had lost, but the incident was solved with Remilia agreeing in withdrawing the mist.

"I just wanted somebody to come and attack the mansion, as well as humor me with a good fight. I got all that, so it's all good." Remilia remarked. Sakuya was left baffled, until Patchouli explained.

"It was typical of Remilia, out of boredom, she would do something nasty, and then called it quits when she had enough."


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Sometime after the events of the Scarlet Mist Incident, the spell Remilia cast on Sakuya had been lifted. The red hue covering her eyes had made way, revealing her beautiful blue pupils.

Naturally, Remilia was fully aware of this, having a much closer eye on Sakuya for weeks, observing the changes in her behavior and see if her memories would return, which might subsequently lead to her betrayal.

"That's strange… the spell I put should've lasted forever. Did she broke free of it herself?" One day Remilia consulted Patchouli about this, being the expert of spells in an overall sense.

"I can think of two possibilities. One, she did indeed broke free of it using her willpower, which wasn't impossible, yet extremely hard to do so. As long as I know you, this had never occurred before to your previous servants."

Remilia stretched her waist and replied, "The spell I put is very powerful, it can even subdue other vampires."

"Then this brings us to the second possibility, perhaps time had something to do with it? Most spells had their effects waned after some time."

"It's only been three years since I last cast the spell on her. Aren't you being too hasty here?" Remilia grabbed a cracker and passed one to her fellow friend, treating herself with another by dunking it into her tea and munched it.

Catching the cracker with simple levitation magic and bit a small piece out of it, Patchouli resumed, "Why not? Don't forget Sakuya has the ability to stop time. It's true that only three years had passed in real time, but in her case, perhaps it's much longer."

Remilia paused for a moment to digest what Patchouli had said, she remembered all the time Sakuya managed to clean up the entire mansion everyday which shouldn't be possible normally. Most of the fairy maids were useless when it comes to cleaning, so most of the time Sakuya took the tasks and dealt with them herself.

Yet, Sakuya would always comply with any requests Remilia had with immediate effect, tending to them with great efficiency no matter how difficult and demanding there were. When serving her mistress, Sakuya would just stand idly besides her, waiting for new orders, and never seemed in a hurry.

With all of these in mind, it could only come to one conclusion, the time Sakuya had passed was multitudes more than imagined. Yet she could still maintain her youthful appearance.

"That, can be taken care using her ability as well. She could easily stop her face and body from aging." Patchouli pointed out.

Nevertheless, after weeks of inspection, Sakuya didn't appear to have any rebellious intent, still addressing the mistress with utmost loyalty, as well as fulfilling her duties just as usual.

She was not totally unchanged, however, she had become less stiff as before, and had become friendlier, more talkative and more casual. She would finally accept errands that involve her going to the Human Village, the only task she would hesitate to comply, and Patchouli also agreed that now would be a more ideal time for her to mix with other humans.

She was still hostile towards Reimu and Marisa, still remembering perfectly their confrontation. However, it was not to say that they would rip each other apart every time they met. It was easier for them to approach Sakuya the way she was now, and they did gradually warm up to each other.

Then, a fateful encounter brought Sakuya to meet again with her past.

It was during the Imperishable Night Incident, where Sakuya had met with a Lunarian, Eirin Yagokoro.

Their silvery hair color had an uncanny similarity to each other. Upon witnessing her ability to manipulate time, Eirin was more than convinced that she knew who Sakuya was truly is.

"I cannot believe it, after all these years, Mikoto actually made it to the Earth."

"What do you mean?"

Eirin began explaining everything to Sakuya, how she was actually a Lunarian, not a human. This explains her powers to manipulate time, something which only Lunarians were capable of, such as Kaguya Houraisan, the exiled Moon princess.

She was actually the daughter of Mikoto, one of the Lunarians who fled to the Earth after having some conflicts with the Moon, and she was supposed to be meeting Eirin, who had already been waiting in Gensokyo during that time. However, her ship changed course and it landed elsewhere, leading to the events where Remilia would be the one meeting her.

"How interesting, that you are alive and well, standing right in front of me." Eirin chuckled, her eyes slightly teary, knowing at least her good friend had left something before ending her life.

Sakuya was unable to swallow up everything Eirin was implying. Their battle resumed, and for its aftermath, the real moon was returned to Gensokyo, and the Moon Viewing Festival reconvened.

"What do you think of your true lineage, Sakuya?" Remilia asked after some time.

"It doesn't make any difference, milady. For I, Sakuya Izayoi, would still be loyal and serve you for eternity." Sakuya replied confidently as she curtsied and bowed to her mistress.

Remilia laughed, "Of course, why does it matter? Human or Lunarian, you are my servant. Excellent, Sakuya, excellent."

"Thank you, milady."

-END-


End file.
